Vancouver daycare owner laments ‘harsh’ denial of application to expand

A Vancouver mom and daycare operator says she was “shocked” to find out her application to expand her home-based business was denied this week, primarily due to concerns from neighbours.

Lisa McCormick and her partner own the Douglas Park Academy daycare on West 20th Avenue, with eight children enrolled at the licensed, multi-age centre in the downstairs of their house.

“We’re trying to just feed the neighbourhood and the community by offering another additional eight spots upstairs in the top level of our home,” she told Global News on Thursday.

The application, however, was rejected at the City of Vancouver’s board of variance this week, with multiple neighbours having voiced opposition to the expansion. The issue was first reported in The Vancouver Sun.

“We were quite shocked with the letters and just what the neighbours were saying,” McCormick said.

“Previous to that, not one person had complained personally. Most people in the neighbourhood have our personal phone numbers … we never received any backlash or comments even before all this.”

McCormick relayed that neighbour concerns were primarily with the likelihood of added parking congestion with the additional daycare spots, as well as noise from more kids playing in the yard.

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Peter Desmet, a neighbour opposed to McCormick’s application, characterized those as “side issues.”

He said he and others are supportive of the existing size of the Douglas Park Academy, but the “main issue” is that its expansion would mean the owners have to move out of the house “taking residential stock out of the market” and possibly creating a “precedent” in the area.

“That became the issue. No one really wants a commercial or a residential property converted into a business,” he explained. “There’s lots of opportunities to look at, you know, alternative spaces that would be more acceptable.”

The neighbourhood is home to a second, half-day daycare with affordable rates, Desmet added. He said some felt that “under-used facility” should be developed instead Douglas Park Academy.

“We all see the need for daycare, especially affordable daycare.”

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On Wednesday, Vancouver Coun. Mike Klassen tweeted his “disappointment” that McCormick’s application was rejected by the independent board of variance. The estimated shortfall of child-care spots in the city is well into the thousands.

“I’ve asked city staff what mechanisms there are to review this decision,” he wrote.

In a Thursday interview, he said he’s not surprised by the “strong reaction” to McCormick’s proposal as the cost of living continues to rise. Prior to the board of variance meeting, he added, municipal staff had rejected the expansion, with parking issues noted.

“In part, it’s the way our public consultation process works right now and it does favour people who tend to be more oppositional,” Klassen explained. “But the fact is, this council is resolved to try and build a lot of new housing and a lot of new child-care spaces, so we have to really balance those concerns.”

ABC Vancouver, which holds the majority on council, aims to build 5,000 new child-care spaces in the city. Klassen said policy reform is needed to ensure these kinds of proposals are not so easily dismissed.

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McCormick, meanwhile, disagreed with any insinuation that eight extra spaces at Douglas Park Academy aren’t needed in the neighbourhood.

“This neighborhood is full of families, full of children. There’s preschools, elementary schools, we’re between two hospitals, there’s working parents .. it’s such a centralized location, a perfect location for daycare,” she said. “It’s a shame that they didn’t see that, you know?”

McCormick said their business also tries to prioritize local families.

“It was a harsh kind of reality because we just assumed that just with the need of childcare in the city, especially in this neighborhood, the board variance and the city would would open their eyes a little bit more to know and see that there was no initial complaints from anyone,” she explained.

“We were running, we thought with a clean record, and yeah, we thought they would just be a bit more open to the idea.”