A childcare centre in North Port Coquitlam wants to double in size.
Today, Sept. 3, the city’s committee of council will look at a rezoning bid from the Dream Builders Early Learning Centre to expand into the next unit at 1470 Prairie Ave., by the Save-On-Foods grocery store.
The facility operators are asking council to boost the number of childcare spots for infants and toddlers from 37 to 74 spaces, once the renovation is complete.
According to a report from Bruce Irvine, Port Coquitlam’s director of development services, the property is designated in a Community Commercial zone, which only allows up to 50 children to be cared for.
Still, the city’s Child Care Policy recommends such commercial setting facilities increase where:
- there’s enough parking and pick-up/drop-off areas
- there’s a playground
- it fits in the neighbourhood
To comply with Fraser Health regulations, Irvine wrote, Dream Builders will construct a 2,500 sq. ft. outdoor play space at the end of the strip mall, to the east of Save-On-Foods, that will be fenced. To get there, the kids will be escorted by centre staff along the storefront footpath.
In 2020, the city adopted a Child Care Policy with the aim to create 145 new childcare spaces a year, until 2030, to meet the growing demand.
As of the end of 2023, Irvine wrote, the city had added 583 new childcare spaces and, this year, about 157 new spaces are in the works (despite a net loss of 12 spots this year).
As for the Dream Builder’s hub, it is along a transit route and is close to Birchland Elementary, Minnekhada Middle and Hyde Creek Recreation Centre.
“The site’s location in the northside centre enjoys good accessibility to an increasing number of children living within the neighbourhood,” Irvine wrote in his report, adding, “The childcare use will also support commercial businesses and the childcare need of their employees.”
If approved by committee this afternoon, the proposal will advance to a public hearing later this month for comment before council reviews it.
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