Belmont looks to expand child care

Hurt’s comments followed a presentation by Christine Padilla, director of Build Up for San Mateo County’s Children, a new initiative to grow and improve the supply of child care and preschool facilities in the county.

Citing studies completed within the last several years, Padilla said the county needs nearly 14,000 new spaces for children ages 0 to 4 by 2025, requiring about $428 million in capital funding. Those studies found that more than half of local child care providers want to expand, but the number one obstacle they face is finding space. Child care providers also regularly cite retention of employees as a major challenge.  

According to 2017 statistics, only 60% of the county’s infant child care needs were met, while for low-income families, just 13% of infant and toddler care needs were satisfied, according to a staff report.

In Belmont, 45% of infant demand, 66% of preschool demand and 72% of school-age demand was met that year, according to the report. 

“[Belmont] has a shortfall, but it’s not too bad. It’s actually manageable,” Padilla said. “This is something if you really looked at closely we could probably get you into the black.” 

Councilwoman Julia Mates said it’d be “fairly easy” to implement development impact fees to help fund child care and also relax zoning in the city to streamline the construction and permitting of such facilities. 

Councilman Charles Stone said he or one of his council colleagues will soon propose new rules for incentivizing child care centers in the city. He also suggested he’d be interested in simply redirecting city funds to Build Up to assist with its efforts.

“We haven’t been asked that question,” Padilla said in response. “We’d love to partner with Belmont.” 

Padilla said cities can also pass local tax measures to fund child care, construct such facilities on underused city-owned properties and also work with religious institutions to expand their child care offerings or lease property for them.

Vice Mayor Warren Lieberman said the city will do what it can to address the child care shortage, but expects the private sector to have a greater impact. 

“I suspect the greatest opportunity is to get local corporations, the tech companies on board with helping out and doing things — they’ve got the resources and the need,” he said. “Whatever we can do as a city I think you’ll find a receptive group, but I suspect in terms of what can be offered it’s going to be a lot more from the private sector.” 

Councilman Thomas McCune said some large tech companies he’s worked with in the past invested heavily in on-site child care while others didn’t because of liability concerns. 

Padilla responded that Build Up is working with the business community to alleviate those concerns and promote success stories.

“There are many companies that have done child care and it’s actually helped them retain and get new hires,” she said. 

During the meeting, it was also said that new housing developments in the city will further inflate demand for child care, but Stone said he’s more concerned about turnover in homeownership. 

“The growth that we need to worry about when it comes to child care needs probably isn’t going to come in a city like Belmont from the housing we’re building, it’s going to come in the turnover of single-family homes from childless homes to families who move in with young children,” he said. “That’s what we’ve seen in the school district and that’s the impact that concerns me even more.”

Insufficient child care facilities is by no means confined to the region and is a challenge across the country, according to the aforementioned studies, which found that 51% of Americans live in “child care deserts” where licensed programs can accommodate fewer than a third of the children in the community.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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