Glenwood Springs City Council unanimously passed minor changes to childcare code changes on Sept. 21. 

“The main meat of this change is aimed at childcare uses, and a major component of this is us updating our code to match with state legislation,” Director of Economic and Community Development Hannah Klausman.

Before the code change the city had two types of childcare facilities: childcare in residential homes and more commercial oriented childcare centers. 

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“Now anything that occurs in a residence is referred to as a family childcare home,” Klausman said. “It’s not small and large anymore, it’s one category, and that truly is because the state legislation made us align so that we don’t regulate a childcare service more than we regulate a residential use.”

Family childcare home was also changed to be allowed in all of the residential uses. 

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“Previously, those were special use permit reviews in some of our residential neighborhoods,” Klausman said. “That is what we are required to do.”

This was another part of code that was required to be updated with state legislation. 

The city also changed code to break up childcare centers, the commercial kind, into two categories. 

Commercial childcare centers will have a small and large category. Small facilities will accommodate up to 12 children; large facilities will accommodate more than 12 children.

“To match up with where we have allowed the family childcare home which is also 12 children and match it up with allowed uses in those zone districts,” Klausman said.  

The small childcare center will remain as a special use permit in very low-density rural-residential and the Residential Medium-Density and Residential Multifamily Limited zone districts. The city is changing the code to allow a small childcare center in residential high-density and in the residential transitional zone districts, Klauman said.

Large childcare centers will remain as special use permits in all of the residential districts to be reviewed by the city.

“We’ve also carried through parking on the family childcare home side to match up with residential as the state legislation requires,” Klausman said. 

Large childcare centers will remain with the same parking code as the previous childcare centers code.