Child care facility near Joseph Gale gets permit

Forest Grove Planning Commission addresses parking and traffic concerns related to project

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The Forest Grove Planning Commission dealt with two issues in our March 27 meeting.

Our first action was to approve a conditional use permit for a child care facility on 18th Avenue across the street from Joseph Gale Park. This private residence will employ four people to serve up to 16 children, with at least two employees working at any one time.

A conditional use permit allows the city to oversee uses in various planning zones, such as residential or commercial, that don't quite fit the normal criteria. State law allows a day care facility for up to 16 children in a residential zone when the owner of that facility lives there. In this case, the owner does not reside in this residence; hence the city can impose conditions on use.

Initially, one of our main concerns was about potential traffic problems. But we learned many of the children arrive early and that the facility opens at 6:30 AM and is open for 12 hours. Hence, much of the traffic does not coincide with children coming to Joseph Gale School, which is just across the street. This removed that traffic concern.

Second, we required employees to park on site to help reduce concerns about parents' ability to drop off their children with a minimum of interference from parked cars.

Third, a neighbor highlighted a problem with the low chain-link fence when children were playing in the backyard. We required that that a 6-foot solid fence be placed along the property lines in the play area.

With our concerns satisfied, we approved the permit.

Our second public hearing concerned a property north of 26th Avenue between A Street and Main Street. This property does not have the required minimum of 15 feet of frontage on a public street. We were asked to consider a variance to this rule. The lot was created years ago when the developer planned to build eight condominiums there. But due to the financial crisis, only four condominiums were built.

To resolve this problem, we created an easement that would allow access to the back half of this property. An easement is a legal agreement between two property owners that allows one to use the property of the other for certain purposes, in this case a driveway. An easement also contains a maintenance agreement between the two parties.

We agreed this solution met the intent of the law of having frontage on a public street, and thus we approved the variance.

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Tom Beck writes a column on the activities of the Forest Grove Planning Commission, which he chairs.