Planners Approve Day-Care Center

Despite residents’ concerns about additional traffic, noise and the smell of soiled diapers, the Camarillo Planning Commission approved a new day-care center.

Planners approved the Kindercare Learning Centers project after adding several conditions.

The day-care center must build a 7-foot sound wall, noise from the facility must be monitored, only 14 children between the ages of 6 and 12 can attend at one time and the center must close by 6:30 p.m.

Several tenants of Pickwick Park Apartments, in the 2400 block of Pickwick Drive, which would back up against the 9,616-square-foot site, spoke against the project at the commission’s Tuesday night meeting.

Teacher Linda Dawson, who lives at Pickwick, argued that the 6-foot sound wall originally planned was inadequate.

Dawson said she doubted that a wall could keep the sound of numerous children at play from bothering residents. Apartments at Pickwick do not have air-conditioning, which means windows are often open, she said.

Dawson also expressed worries about odors from dirty diapers emitting from trash bins. But a Kindercare representative at the meeting assured residents that the center has its garbage hauled away three times a week.

Parking concerns prompted Dr. Thomas Phelps, who operates a walk-in medical clinic at nearby Daily Plaza, to write a complaint letter to city planners. Phelps wrote that parking would worsen once the lot was cut in half to make room for the center. Planners responded that the parking lot had sufficient room and that each business would be assigned parking spaces.

Not everyone opposed the day-care center. One of the owners of Pickwick Park defended the commission’s decision, saying that a day-care center was a far better neighbor than an automotive garage or drugstore, which are both allowed under the current zoning.

The Kindercare project was approved on a 3-0 vote. Commissioner Don Waunch was absent and Commissioner Roger Lund abstained from voting because he serves as a board member for a church that would compete with Kindercare for students.