Natasha Jones
Times Reporter
A rezoning application that would pave the way for a daycare for 25 children received mixed reaction at a Township council public hearing on Jan. 24.
On Monday. the proposal was turned down by council and then later, in the dying minutes of a long council meeting, was revived.
Sohilla Qanberry has applied to rezone a home at 26994 - 26 Ave. in Aldergrove from residential to community care facility zone, to allow her to expand her daycare and operate it from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
There is a shortage of licensed child care facilities in Aldergrove, Qanberry told council. She currently has eight children in her business, Mommy鈥檚 Daycare, and the new zoning, if approved, would allow her to have a maximum of 25 children in the home she shares with her husband and their children.
Her daycare will be staffed by qualified Early Childhood Education staff, and will accept ECE students who want to complete their practicums, Qanberry said.
She plans to take the children on weekly trips to the library at the Aldergrove Community Kinsmen Centre to help with their cognitive, social development and fine and large motor skills.
Many neighbours wrote in support of Qanberry鈥檚 application, and a couple at the hearing told council they had no objections. However, the application is not without its detractors.
Sam Pandala said the noise is sometimes so loud that his wife, who works night shift, has to sleep somewhere other than at home. He told council that when he and his wife found their home 鈥渋t was a dream come true.鈥�
While acknowledging that the children in Qanberry鈥檚 care are well looked after, Joan Podgorenko told council what it is like living in a house that backs on to a busy daycare.
Car doors and gates banging at 6 a.m., sensor lights going on and children crying interrupt her sleep. It鈥檚 especially annoying on days when she doesn鈥檛 have to go to work, Podgorenko said.
Podgorenko said that the vehicles coming and going as caregivers drop off and collect 25 children is too much traffic.
鈥淪o much for sleeping in on my days off,鈥� she said, adding that there have been times when she was so frustrated she wanted to scream out of the window.
She suggested a solution.
鈥淟arge daycares are supposed to be in schools or churches,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is supposed to be a residential neighbourhood.鈥�
On Monday, council initially defeated the application on a 4-4 tie (one councillor was absent). A proposal to allow a maximum of 12 children was defeated, as were subsequent limits of 12, 14, and 15 children.
At the end of the meeting, the application was revived, with the daycare given permission to have a maximum of 15 children, pending a Fraser Health Authority assessment.
