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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 07281992 - IO.2 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 1 .0.-2 Contra FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE i Costa s.a y fd� DATE: June 15, 19 9 2 •�'°- �.='�� County'TA 't' SUBJECT: REPORT ON CHILD CARE ISSUES, INCLUDING IMPOSITION OF A CHILD CARE MITIGATION FEE ON DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNINCORPORATED AREA OF THE COUNTY SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Acknowledge receipt of the attached data from the Community Development Department providing documentation for a child care mitigation fee for developments of fewer than 30 units in the amount of at least $400 per unit. 2 . Direct the County Counsel ' s Office to prepare and submit to the Board of Supervisors on August 4, 1992 an Ordinance amending the existing Child Care Facilities Ordinance to require that the Community Development Department verify the need for child care facilities .and programs in each unincorporated community in the County every three years and providing for a fee to mitigate the child care needs created by developments of between one and twenty-nine units in lieu of undertaking the child care survey required in the existing Ordinance. 3 . Fix September 8, 1992 at 11 : 00 a.m. for a hearing on an Ordinance amending the existing Child Care Facilities Ordinance to fix the Child Care Facilities Fee for developments of fewer than 30 units at $400 per unit. Direct the Clerk of the Board to comply with all applicable notice requirements . 0 BACKGROUND: On May 19 , 1992, the Board of Supervisors requested staff from the Community Development Department to provide certain data to our Committee which was determined to be important to determining the need for and amount of a child care mitigation fee for developments with 29 or fewer units . On June 15, 1992 our Committee met with Kate Ertz-Berger, Executive Director of the Contra Costa Child Care CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY RATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE 66 w V' SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER �lui�r vv, i� VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. CC: Please see Page 2 . ATTESTED ,Ti /??;b P BATCH LOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR M382DEPUTY (10;89) BY I .O.-2 Council and Linda Moulton from the Community Development Department. Ms . Moulton reviewed the attached data with our Committee which demonstrates that a very sound argument can be made for a child care facilities mitigation fee for smaller developments of as much as $722 per unit. The fee previously discussed was $400 per unit. In view of the data submitted, our Committee believes that a fee of $400 per unit for developments of 29 or fewer units can readily be justified. We are, therefore, recommending that the above Ordinance be prepared by the County Counsel ' s Office and submitted to the Board of Supervisors on August 4, 1992 so it can be adopted on August 11, 1992 . The ordinance actually establishing the fee, however, must be noticed in advance. It is unlikely that we can properly notice a hearing for August 11 . We are, therefore, recommending that the hearing be set for September 8, 1992 . We plan to retain this issue in Committee for the time being to continue to monitor the implementation of the Child Care Facilities Ordinance and determine whether any further refinements to the Ordinance are required. cc: Harvey Bragdon, Community Development Director Victor J. Westman, County Counsel Linda Moulton, Demographer, CDD Guy Bjerke, Building Industry Association of California Kate Ertz-Berger, Executive Director Contra Costa Child Care Council 2 CONTRA COSTA COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT DATE: June 11, 1992 TO: Internal Operations Committee FROM: inda Moulton SUBJECT: Child Care Ordinance and Other Child Care Issues The discussion of several child care issues was continued from the May 11, 1992 Internal Operations Committee meeting to the meeting on June 15th. I. DOCUMENTATION OF SHORTAGE OF CHILD CARE FACILITIES: Kate Ertz-Berger of the Contra Costa Child Care Council has forwarded child care supply and need data by area of the county to you. Analysis of this data confirms that infant/toddler care is needed in virtually every community and most communities need a larger supply of school age care. Many areas seem to have an adequate supply of pre-school positions if you consider both center based care and family day care slots. However, the level of need varies by community. For example, there is a need for more child care positions for all age levels in Oakley and in the Danville area while some communities, such as Alamo, have almost no school age care. II. METHODOLOGY AND DISCUSSION OF CHILD CARE MITIGATION FEE FOR SUBDIVISIONS HAVING LESS THAN 30 UNITS. The cost of providing for child care facilities as mitigation for housing developments is dependent on several factors. The child generation rate, the number of children age 0-12 per household, is a primary factor, but the following variables are also important: the percent of children with working mothers; the percent of children needing child care outside of the home; and the cost of providing child care facilities per child. The number of children per household is quite variable within the county as is shown by Tables 1 and 2. Among the incorporated cities the ratio of children age 0-12 per household varies from a low of .25 per household in Walnut Creek to a high of .76 in Brentwood. Overall, the ratio is .51 for the county and .53 for the unincorporated part of the county. Table 2 shows the variation between ' unincorporated communities. The lowest ratio was .13 in Pacheco to a high of 1 .02 children per household in North Richmond. There are several factors that contribute to these PAGE 2. differences. Areas with high numbers of multiple units, an older age of housing, and an older age of population tend to have much lower numbers of children per household. For example, 46.6 percent of the housing units are multiple units and 22.8 percent of the population is over age 65 in Walnut Creek which helps to explain the low ratio of children per household. On the other hand, Oakley which had a relatively high child generation rate of .83 per household has only 9.5 percent multiple units and 5.8 percent of the population over age 65. The unincorporated county has 19.6 of units in the multiple category and 10.1 of the population over 65. Although, new housing would have even higher child generation rates than those shown in Tables 1 and 2, it is impossible to calculate the number of children by age of housing from census data. However, to illustrate this point, the Oakley area had a child generation rate of .62 in 1980 and one of .83 in 1990. In an era of declining children per household, these increases in children per household is a result of new, single family housing in Oakley. No doubt the generation rate for new housing is higher than .83, but there is no way to measure this without a special study. The mix of children by age, such as the 0-4 year olds versus the 5-12 year olds, also varies by area. The 0-4 year olds comprise 40 percent of the children 0-12 in the unincorporated county but this does vary by community. In Contra Costa County, 64.4 percent of all women with children are in the labor force. Labor force participation rates vary by the age of children. Women with children only below the age of 6 have a labor force participation rate of 57.5 percent while women with children ages 6-17 have a rate of 73 percent. Women who have children in both the under 6 and 6-17 age groups have the lowest rate of 52 percent. In calculating the percent of children with working mothers, I proposed to use the overall rate of 64.4 percent. Studies have shown.that approximately half of all children with working mothers need child care outside of the family. The cost of providing child care facilities per child is related to the amount of land needed per child, both inside and outside, the cost of the land, the cost of the building, the cost of the classroom furnishings, play equipment and landscaping. For child care centers, there needs to be 110 square feet of land per child (both inside and outside). This does not include parking requirements, set backs and landscaping outside of the play area. For example, a site in Oakley of almost exactly an acre could accommodate 124 children (instead of 396 if you only considered interior and exterior play area). The configuration of the lot could also affect the number of children which could be accommodated. PAGE 3. Estimates for building costs for child care centers range from $65 per square foot to $98 per square foot. Costs per acre of land suitable for a child care center range from $125,000 (improved) in Oakley to $225,000 per acre in Martinez. Obviously, the cost could be much higher per acre if the site was in a commercial or office area. Using the following assumptions: (1 ) $175,000 per acre for land (a conservative estimate); (2) $80 per square foot for the building; (3) $5 per square foot for classroom equipment; (4) $3.50 per square foot for landscaping and fences on the outside; and a (5) 6000 square foot building capable of serving 125 children; the original cost of a facility would be approximately $800,000 or $6,400 for each child. Assuming that: (1 ) there are .53 children ages 0-12 in households in the unincorporated county; (2) 64.4 percent of children have working mothers (ie: proxy for both parents working); and (3) 50 percent of children need paid care outside the home; there would be the need to provide care for an average of .17066 children for each housing unit built. Thus, the cost of providing space for .17066 children would be: .17066 X $6,400 = $1,092 However, not all child care would need to be at a child care center. About 40 percent of children ages 0-12, are under age 5. These children would be the most likely to be served at a center except for infants. School age children would be more likely to use the before and after school care provided at many school sites or other child care arrangements. Facilities at school sites tend to be much less expensive because the land cost is not included and outdoor play equipment is often not needed because the school yard equipment can be used. If only building space has to be provided, than the cost per child would be closer to $2,800. Sixty percent of the children would need care at a facility where the cost was much Tess than at a center. PAGE 4. Thus, the overall cost for child care would be: 0-4 40% of .17066 X $6,400 = $436 5-12 60% of .17066 X $2,800 = $286 Using the above assumptions, the cost of mitigation would be $722 per housing unit. The fee which had been previously discussed was $400 per unit. Since the policy of the Child Care Ordinance was to assist and encourage the development of adequate child care, a fee of $400 per unit would help leverage the development of child care facilities. The exact amount of the fee can be set at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors. Apartments, condominimums and townhouses have fewer persons per unit. Whereas, single family homes have close to 3 persons per unit. Attached units such as condominimums and townhouses have less than 2.3 persons per unit while apartments have an average of under 2 persons per unit. Unfortunately, census data does not show how many children live in various types of housing. I would suggest that condominimums and townhouses pay a fee of half of that for single family homes, that studios and one bedrooms be exempt as in the current ordinance and that other apartments pay a fee which is one-fourth of the fee of single family homes. III. PROGRESS REPORT - CHILD CARE MITIGATION FOR SD 6922 AND SD 6935 With the cooperation of the Child Care Council, I have continued to try to identify prospective child care providers who might be interested in building a child care center on the site designated under the conditions of approval for Subdivisions 6922 and 6935. Kate Ertz-Berger is placing a notice in the Child Care Council's Bulletin informing providers who are interested in either expanding their facilities or in building new facilities of the possibility of cooperating with developers in satisfying the developers' mitigation requirements. She has suggested that the providers contact the child care broker. Kate has also drafted a letter explaining the Child Care Ordinance and mitigations procedures which can be sent to providers. We hope to identify providers who might be interested in building a facility in Oakley. At this point, we do have 3 or 4 child care providers who have expressed interest in establishing a facility. We plan to meet with them as soon as possible to explain about the site, the architectural plans, and possible child care mitigation monies that could be available to help facilitate the construction of a child care center. I believe that we should make a concerted effort to locate a qualified child care provider who is interested in building a new facility. Although The Wooldridge Organization, the current owners of the subdivisions, did contact providers in the past, perhaps a new effort will be more successful. PAGE 5. IV. PENDING MITIGATIONS Due to the meeting being moved from June 22nd to June 15th, I request a continuation of the presentation of the report on pending mitigations. LM:sw sw 1:childcar.lm TABLE 1 Ratio of Children, Ages 0-4 and 5-12, Per Household by City 0-4 5-12 0-12 Antioch .28 .41 .69 Brentwood .30 .46 .76 Clayton .18 .44 .62 Concord .20 .29 .49 Danville .18 .33 .51 EI Cerrito .12 .16 .28 Hercules .27 .44 .71 Lafayette .15 .27 .42 Martinez .18 .25 .43 Moraga .14 .27 .41 Orinda .16 .27 .43 Pinole .19 .37 .56 Pittsburg .31 .43 .74 Pleasant Hill .17 .21 .38 Richmond .23 .31 .54 San Pablo .29 .40 .69 San Ramon .20 .33 .53 Walnut Creek .09 .16 .25 Total Cities .20 .30 .50 Unincorporated County .21 .32 .53 Total County .20 .31 .51 CAWP51\SW\LM-TABLE TABLE 2 Ratio of Children, Ages 0-4 and 5-12, Per Household by Unincorporated Areas 0-4 5-12 0-12 Bethel Island .07 .12 .19 Discovery Bay .16 .24 .40 Oakley .34 .49 .83 Remainder "Far East Census Division" .22 .33 .55 West Pittsburg .32 .41 .73 Alamo .16 .33 .49 Blackhawk .20 .45 .65 Clyde .21 .29 .50 Pacheco .05 .08 .13 Vine Hill .22 .38 .60 Bayview - Montalvin .25 .53 .78 Crockett .16 .20 .36 East Richmond Heights .15 .25 .40 EI Sobrante .18 .27 .45 Kensington .11 .17 .28 North Richmond .36 .63 1 .02 Rodeo .23 .39 .62 Tara Hills .20 .29 .49 All Other Unincorporated .19 .27 . .46 TOTAL UNINCORPORATED .21 .32 .53 C:\WP51\SW\LM-TAB-2