Charlottetown home-based daycares debated at public meeting

There was a mixed reaction on how to handle Charlottetown's contradictory home-based daycare rules at a public meeting Monday night.

After receiving a complaint and another inquiry, city planning staff noticed a problem with the home-based daycare bylaw.

One section says if you live in the home you can operate a daycare, but another section says you can only operate if you own the home. That would mean renters are out.

"The bylaw was erroneously amended in a way that creates some conflict and makes it a bit difficult to enforce some of these requirements and it's inadvertently putting undue hardship on some segments of the population and we believe this is quite problematic," said Jesse Morton, an urban planner with the city.

"In it's current form, staff believe the bylaw creates problems for the city, for enforcement and for members of the community."

The city wants the bylaw to read that as long as the business owner resides in the home, they can run the business.

Renters 'not going to care'

"We don't see a difference between renting a home and owning a home for this type of business," said planning board chairman Coun. Greg Rivard.

Planning staff say that's the case in most municipalities across the country and the provincial laws don't restrict operation to homeowners.

Neil Lawless is against the idea, saying daycares in rental units would increase traffic and noise and property values could be affected.

"They're just going to absolve themselves of any complaints," said Lawless. "They're not going to be as interested to work with the adjacent property owners to appease them and try to blend into the community. They're not going to care."

But others such asRoseanne Cheverie, who runs a daycare out of her home disagrees, saying the need is too great to not open it up to everyone.

"There's not enough daycares available in Charlottetown available for people to go back to work."

The issue will now go back to planning board and then be brought forward to council at its next meeting in February.