LOS ALAMITOS : City May Loosen Child Care Rules

The City Council tonight will consider enacting an ordinance making it easier and faster for residents to provide child care in their homes.

Public hearings on applications for home-based child care will no longer be required under the proposed ordinance, unless there is a request from neighbors who may be adversely affected.

If approved, the ordinance also would eliminate the requirement to provide play areas of 75 square feet outdoors and 35 square feet indoors for every child being cared for.

The current requirement to landscape the play area and enclose it with a six-foot wall also will be eliminated.

The ordinance is intended to encourage more residents to provide child care in their homes, officials said. Also, it’s designed to bring city regulations in compliance with a less-restrictive state law, city planner Cindy Nelsen said.

“It’s a cleanup ordinance,” Nelsen said. “We’re now requiring more things that state law requires.”

The ordinance would apply to so-called large family day-care homes, which provide baby-sitting and after-school care for seven to 12 children in residential areas.

Operators of day-care homes must obtain a license from the Orange County Social Services Department before applying for a use permit, Nelsen said. The use permit costs $425, she said.

The proposed ordinance, however, would require those planning to open a family day-care home to notify property owners within 100 feet of the facility.