Panel OKs Plans for Child-Care Center
The Thousand Oaks Planning Commission has unanimously approved plans to build a child-care center on the site of a gardening supply store that burned to the ground more than two years ago.
A 6,500-square-foot child-care center will be built in the 3200 block of Foothill Drive, just west of Hampshire Road, on the former site of Reiner’s Garden Nursery. The gardening store burned Jan. 12, 1994.
The proposed facility, approved late Monday, will accommodate a maximum of 115 toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten-age children.
It will be open weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and will have nine teachers.
The owners, Reiner and Shirley Norpchen, decided not to rebuild the nursery because of lack of funds and loss of customer base. But the customers for the child-care facility will be easy to find, city officials said.
“There is an extreme need for child-care space in the city,” said Steve Cragle of the city manager’s office.
Cragle said he provided the Norpchens with a report commissioned by the city about the acute need for child-care spaces.
Reiner Norpchen said Wednesday that he hopes the facility will be open by January.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
