San Carlos pilots child care grant program

San Carlos has collected over $1 million in impact fees to be dedicated toward this grant, and $250,000 will be available for application this fiscal year 2024-25.

“It’s very rewarding to see this finally come to fruition,” Councilmember Adam Rak said.

Once implemented, the grant money will be awarded in batches four times a year. With quarterly deadlines, staff would then look at applicant proposals and make decisions based on intention and impact, rather than awarding based on a first come, first served basis.

Mayor John Dugan proposed awarding 100% of grant requests up to $50,000, and 50% of any amount above, up to $100,000. To get $100,000, an applicant would have to lay out a $150,000 capital improvement project.

While these decisions were suggested by councilmembers to promote equity, City Manager Jeff Maltbie said the goal of this grant is ultimately to increase child care spaces as quickly as possible, and get the money back to the child care community.

“We’re not looking at this program as being beneficial to the providers, we’re looking at it as a program designed to try to bring more spaces to the community,” Maltbie said. “Equity of how the money gets distributed between all the businesses out there isn’t necessarily the guiding principle, it’s more are spaces being created for the community.”

The grant program effort began after the city received a presentation in 2017 identifying a grave shortage of over 650 spaces for infant and preschool-aged children. In 2022, the City Council implemented a child care development impact fee with a proposed use to develop the program. The city has five years after a permit is requested to use the collected impact fees.

“We’re on the shot clock to start actually spending the money or it’s going to go back to the developers, which I don’t think anyone wants to have happen,” Maltbie said. “It’s certainly going to be changed and modified over time, but we think it’s more important to start trying to get those dollars out of our pockets and into the child care provider community and then fine-tune it as we go forward.”

Although grant funds will be made available as early as this fall, whether or not the grant will be provided as a reimbursement will be determined through staff discretion.

It was initially proposed to require an invoice of said construction before the city would sign a check, but after suggestions from councilmembers and the public, it may be provided up front or in installments throughout a project’s timeline.

While the reimbursement process was proposed as the best way to guarantee use of funds, this could consequently only subsidize providers who can fully pay for such construction up front.

“We are a nonprofit, we have health reserves, but I do not have $300,000 to convert a center,” Michelle Myhre, a board member of a nonprofit child care center, said. “If I did, I would have done it. I wouldn’t be waiting for years to have this come down the pipeline.”

The City Council also updated some of its zoning code to remove roadblocks for child care development and allow for adapting reuse of existing buildings. The update allows commercial child care facilities to be operated in certain existing buildings — primarily churches — within three new zoning districts, including single-family zones which make up the majority of the city.

The efforts to promote child care in the city is a longstanding effort, Vice Mayor Sara McDowell said, and the rest of the council expressed satisfaction with the step.

“As a mom and councilmember I feel like this is a super rewarding moment for all of us to be helping our small business and our smallest residents,” McDowell said. “This has been in the works for seven years, so it’s been a long road, and it’s exciting to be a city that is trailblazing for child care.”

The grant and zoning updates were approved unanimously, with Councilmember Pranita Venkatesh recusing herself as she is a child care provider. A second reading of the zoning updates will be presented to council at its Aug. 26 meeting, and if approved, will be effective Sept. 25.