Boston child care access grows following BPDA zoning code amendment

The demand for child care in Boston is high, and officials are hoping a change in the zoning code will make it easier for families to have their needs met by allowing providers to open facilities in all neighborhood districts.

Providers will no longer have to take into account how much space their programs take up on a property nor worry about meeting specific parking requirements after the Boston Planning and Development Agency signed off on various changes to the zoning code this week.

In 2020, Boston had nearly 40,000 children ages 0 to 5 — with more than half of them 2 and under — but the availability of child care seats proved scarce, according to city data. Just 21% of the roughly 24,200 seats available were for infants and toddlers, figures show

Downtown, Back Bay and Beacon Hill are the only neighborhoods where available seats outnumber the children who need them. Charlestown, West Roxbury and Hyde Park are most in need, officials say.

“Most of Boston’s neighborhoods are experiencing a childcare access gap,” BPDA planner Abdul-Razak Zachariah said. “Many of the neighborhood districts that face these childcare access gaps align with the areas that forbid or require conditional permits for the creation and operation of daycare centers.”

The previous zoning code listed facilities and programs as “day care” uses, not aligning with definitions from the state Department of Early Education and Care, Zachariah said. But the update changes that to “child care,” he said.

All neighborhood subdistricts will allow child care facilities as uses “as of right,” and providers will no longer have to apply for conditional permits or go through the zoning appeal process, Zachariah said.

“As a result of these changes,” he said, “what we saw before as a very restrictive environment for child care facilities will become a land use and environment where child care centers and accessory family childcare homes can be built in every Boston neighborhood.”

The amended zoning code will not impact regulations and policies to ensure the safety and quality of child care centers and home-based providers, with programs continuing to follow state guidelines, said Paula Gaviria Villarreal, child care program director for the city’s Office of Early Childhood.

She believes there will be a host of benefits to families and providers from the updated code.

“It would increase the labor force participation, specifically for moms, women who are willing to return to the workforce, and it would decrease their costs,” she said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/mOLfI6M