Daycare Debate Continues Despite Compromise

The debate over a Church Street daycare continues even after a .

Smyrna’s Planning and Zoning Board voted 7-0 to approve a text amendment concerning day nurseries in the city’s residential zoning designation at its meeting Monday. The amendment will now go before Smyrna City Council for a vote at its meeting Monday, July 16.

Before taking a vote, the board heard comments from two camps: residents of Flagler Circle and Church Street who wanted all language concerning day nurseries removed from the R-15 zoning designation and an attorney representing Jimmy and Cindy Smith, the owners’ of Oxford Academy.

Ward 1 Representative Matt Wirth admitted that the text amendment the Planning and Zoning Board was voting on didn’t directly address the concerns of residents. The amendment that the board approved clarified language in one subsection of the ordinance allowing daycares. The language affected is printed below with the amended language set off in bold:

703.2 Day nurseries and kindergartens are permitted provided that

1) They are located on a lot which has access to a major or minor arterial.

6) A semicircular drive shall be provided for off-street loading and unloading of children. Both ends of this drive shall have access per the requirements of Section 703.2(1)

“We’re not ignoring a problem by just voting one section of it tonight,” Wirth said. “We’re trying to address part of it that we know needs clarification (…) One thing that we’ve talked about is it was put into place for some purpose. We don’t all actually understand why. Some people may understand more fully than others, but recommending to remove it completely before we’re better educated on what its purpose is and how it can be applied across the city, I think, would be premature.”

Some of those who took the podium weren’t bothered by the text amendment, like the Smiths attorney Garth Sams.

“Interestingly enough we don’t oppose and we’re not particularly in favor, we just really are neutral in respect to the text amendment and we know you’ll do whatever you think is appropriate.”

But some Flagler Circle residents like Bonnie Berry thought the board wasn’t doing enough.

“We are respectfully requesting that this committee make a recommendation to the City Council that this daycare language be removed in its entirety,” she said. “We feel that the Council is waiting and needing your guidance and recommendation.”

Another resident opposed to Oxford Academy said he didn’t think the existing facilities complied with the city’s current zoning language.

“I don’t think the language from the ’06 amendment inherently suggests a commercial operation,” Joe Davis said. “I don’t see anything in the language that says that. When I saw the language I envisioned something that allowed the homeowner to keep children in the home—their home.”

Church Street resident Deborah Tompkins reiterated points she’s made at past public hearings.

“In my view, the whole intent and purpose of R-15 is to protect the residents and homeowners there,” she said. “That the character of the area will basically remain the same. That was the whole purpose of the law and that zone. These amendments, in my view, completely change the entire intent and render the purpose of R-15 meaningless.”

Diane Barge spoke on behalf of her father, a Church Street resident, concerning the compromise reached last week between Don and Bonnie Berry, homeowners on Flagler Circle, and the Smiths. Instead of expanding their daycare into the home they own at the corner of Flagler Circle, the Smiths agreed to renovate their family home on Church Street for the expansion.

“The current house they’re living in is not 10 feet off my dad’s property line,” she said. “I don’t know how that falls in to legally changing it to a daycare where you have a lot of kids outside playing.”

Ultimately the board made a decision, but after the vote Wirth said he and his colleagues would continue to examine the ordinance. 

Read More About the Oxford Academy Expansion on Smyrna-Vinings Patch:

• Yard Signs Show Opposition to Daycare Expansion