Everyone on the Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals agreed that what Instrumental Machine & Development (IMD) wanted to do for its employees with the property at 615 N. Parker St. was “admirable,” but the rules of a Residential-1 zoning district kept the Board from approving it.
IMD petitioned for a use variance to allow a daycare center to be located within an R-1 zoning district, City Planner Justin Taylor told the Board. The property at 615 N. Parker St. was constructed as a single-family home and has historically been used in that capacity. Operating hours would be from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The facility would care for 12 to 16 children at a time, he said.
“The petitioner has submitted a plan … to modify the driveway as well in the future to help facilitate the pick-up and drop-off of children,” Taylor said.
He also said that, historically, the Board has protected R-1 zoning districts from uses that may have a detrimental impact or change the character of a neighborhood. He said the city’s code draws a distinction between home daycare, which are permitted within R-1s, and daycare centers. Taylor said it was the recommendation of the Warsaw Planning Department that the Board deny the request because the proposed use may have a detrimental impact on the value of the adjacent properties.
“We do understand that there is a great need for child care for working families in our community; however, we feel that the highest and best use of this property is to maintain it as a single-family residence,” Taylor concluded.
Before opening the case to the public, Board President Tom Allen reminded everyone that the Board is a government institution and has to abide by the rules set by the city’s codes. “I want everyone to know it’s not a personal decision that comes down. It’s not the final. You can appeal,” he said.
Allen said it’s never happened that the Board put a commercial entity into an R-1 zone. He said Monday’s case was the second where a child care center applied for a special permit, and the other one was denied as well.
Representing IMD, Miriel McFarland presented a 26-minute presentation on what IMD wanted to do with the property and why.
She told the Board that instead of thinking of what they wanted to do as a daycare center, they should think of it as a “small-scale home child care provider.”
IMD, on Pound Drive, specializes in custom tooling, especially in regards to medical device manufacturers. It is locally and family owned, McFarland said.
In 2020, on any given day, IMD had between 105 to 120 employees present. Due to COVID-19 pandemic’s effect, on Feb. 23 IMD reduced its employees from 105 to 85.
“These are 85 families, local families, that are impacted by our decisions,” she said. “…. We spoke about this need for child care and how it has impacted our families directly. How can we help our families to receive the child care needed so that they can enjoy a further quality of life as being an employee of a manufacturing company, which many citizens of Warsaw find themselves in the same position?”
McFarland said they approached LaunchPad Director Sherry Searles and Searles encouraged IMD to engage in a facility-wide survey. With the survey, she said they learned 30% of its workforce has children 12 years old and younger and needs child care on a daily basis. “Approximately 50% of those families live in 46580 and 46582 zip codes, and 100% of them expressed in writing that they are concerned about the lack of accessibility, quality and affordability,” she stated.
She talked about how Warsaw is part of a child care desert, and how parents aren’t going to leave their children in “the hands of a lack of quality,” so “one parent leaves their job and this provides further economic hardship to the household.”
IMD’s proposal for the property is “small scale, small scale, small scale employer-provided child care. We propose to alleviate a small portion of what is within our capacity to alleviate this child care dilemma and crisis that we see on a grander scale on a daily basis with a program that would be unlike any other model this area has seen.”
She said IMD bought the property on Parker to provide the child care. She said they had to buy the house quickly because of how quickly real estate goes off the market. IMD also wanted a location within a five-minute drive to the company for its employees’ convenience.
“So we buy the home. We provide the overhead costs such as gas, electric, water, sewage, upkeep. And, also, a small percentage of the scholarship needed for the families’ weekly fees,” McFarland said.
IMD has been working with Early Childhood Alliance on the plan.
Board Vice President Rick Keeven asked her why that location, home and neighborhood. McFarland said basically it was because of its location being within five minutes of IMD. Converting a home into a child care facility was also more cost effective than converting a previous business or manufacturing building.
City attorney Scott Reust reminded the Board that when it comes to use variances, “the questions that you as a BZA have to find, going to have to certify, are the five that Justin put out in this pamphlet.”
For a use variance, a variance may be approved only upon a determination in writing that: 1. The approval will not be injurious to the public health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community; 2. The use and value of the area adjacent to the property included in the variance will not be affected in a substantially adverse manner; 3. The need for the variance arises from some condition peculiar to the property involved; 4. The strict application for the terms of the zoning ordinance will constitute an unnecessary hardship if applied to the property for which the variance is sought; 5. The approval does not interfere substantially with the comprehensive plan.
Reust said No. 3 and No. 4 were important in his opinion for the Board to consider. Allen said the five points were the “rules of the game” and he didn’t think a hardship existed for the property.
Kosciusko Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker, who was there to support the petition, asked about home-based child care services versus what IMD wanted to do with the Parker Street property. Taylor said the city’s ordinances sees the home-based home care with someone living in the home differently from a child care center.
“I just think that this is closer to a home-based business than it would be a center. Because if you go to a commercial space, there’s no possibility of really doing what they want to do from a financial perspective. The only way that we can help solve this for businesses is find homes where they can provide this service,” Parker said.
Searles spoke about the three types of regulated care in Indiana: child care centers in commercial spaces, registered ministries in church buildings and licensed child care homes. “This is actually a licensed child care home,” she said.
Reust reminded the Board that they don’t choose what the zoning is for the city. They just have to follow the rule as written. “This is not a home-based business and it can not be treated as such,” he said.
Todd Speicher, president and owner of IMD, questioned where R-1 stops and starts in the city and why there are a number of homes through town that have been converted into businesses like salons.
After Madiline Baker, CEO of Early Childhood Alliance, spoke in favor of the petition, several neighbors spoke against the petition, citing traffic and noise generally.
In Board comments, Allen said, “I think all of us agree that this is a very admirable effort, and I think the people who are opposed to it said that as well, so thank you for bringing it to us.”
Keeven said there were a lot of good intentions behind the proposal, while Board members Tammy Dalton and Jeff Johnson said they were opposed to setting precedence. Dalton made the motion to deny it, and it was denied 5-0.
