Zoning Subcommittee Wants Further Debate on Childcare Ordinance

By Adam Swift

The City Council wants further discussion on a change to the city’s home-based daycare zoning ordinance before approving any changes.

The proposed zoning change would allow Revere home-based daycares to operate without a special permit from the City Council, and would allow for up to 10 children per business with proper staffing. The proposed zoning change would put Revere in line with state regulations, increase daycare openings in the city, and benefit the small home-based business, according to Tom Skwierawski, the city’s Director of Planning and Community Development.

The proposal was before the council’s zoning subcommittee on Monday night, but with other items on the agenda, councillors said they did not have the time required to properly discuss and make a recommendation to the full council.

“We can do a little deliberating, but we’ve only got six minutes,” said Councillor-at-Large and zoning subcommittee chair Anthony Zambuto.

During the limited time on Monday, Skwierawski said he wanted to address a few concerns that were raised by the council at a public hearing last month.

“Number one was the special permit threshold for approving home-based childcare,” he said. “We did a state-level analysis … and looked at what other communities across the Commonwealth are doing with this item.”

Several councillors indicated that they were not against increasing the number of children allowed in the home-based daycares, but were concerned with doing away with the special permit process through the council altogether.

Skwierawski said the analysis split the smaller and larger home daycares to see how they were treated.

“We looked at 53 communities in total, including all of those around us,” he said, with 52 allowing small, home-based childcare by right, meaning those with six or fewer children. For larger childcare businesses of up to 10 children, he said 37 of the communities allowed them by right.

Several councillors also raised concerns about the ordinance allowing pools at home-based daycares. Skwierawski previously stated that the state allows pools at the daycares with proper safety regulations, further adding that none of the 53 communities surveyed had language banning pools outright.

“With that particular item, we actually suggested a tweak in the language, where I think before it said swimming pools will be allowed if they comply with applicable requirements, both local and state,” Skwierawski said. “We just changed the language a bit to say no swimming pools located on the premises of the family childcare home will be allowed unless they comply with both the local and the state regulations.”

He noted that there are already some existing childcare sites with pools, and the city needs to look at how it operates safely within the confines of the law. Skwierawski also said he hopes the council at least aligns with the other 98 percent of the communities the city looked at that allow smaller home-based daycares without a special permit.

Zambuto said there seems to be an appetite on the zoning subcommittee to keep the special permit process in place, but that it would be open for further discussion.

From an inspectional services perspective, Director of Inspectional Services Michael Wells said he would like to see measures in place where if the daycare property was not owned by the business owner, there would be a letter signed by the building owner. He said the property should also be in good standing with no inspectional violations.

Skwierawski noted that he believed there was going to be a vote on the zoning ordinance change on Monday night.

“I don’t think we have enough information to vote on this tonight, not in my eyes, and I’m the chairman of the committee,” said Zambuto.

However, Councillor-at-Large Steven Morabito noted that the presentation and information on the zoning change was provided more than a month ago.

“The question is, in the month span since you got that package, how much of that did you review and how many questions do you have?” Morabito asked Zambuto.

Zambuto stated that Morabito was not a member of the zoning subcommittee and was out of order.

“I will remember that,” said Morabito.

In other business, the zoning subcommittee recommended approval of a special permit for a proposed five-townhouse project at 84 Arcadia, a recommendation that was later approved by the full council.