Reno council takes first step to make opening childcare centers easier

By Jaedyn Young, Reno Gazette Journal 

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Reno City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance to remove or reduce costs and other barriers for childcare centers.

According to Reno senior policy analyst Grace Mackedon, 72% of Nevadans live in a childcare desert and Nevada is the eighth-least-affordable state for infant care.

“There’s more children than there are childcare spots,” Mackedon told the RGJ. “It costs more to send an infant to infant care than it would to send a kid to university (here).”

The council in July directed staff to look at changes to the zoning code that would make it easier to open childcare centers.

Under current Reno code, in-home and workplace childcare centers must get zoning permits that cost over $4,000 and take 30 days for approval, with no guarantee of approval.

Commercial childcare centers’ zoning permits cost nearly $5,000 and take 65 days for approval.

The new ordinance lowers that cost for commercial childcare centers and removes all zoning permit requirements, and the costs associated with them, for in-home and workplace childcare.

All three types of childcare centers will still have to provide added pickup and drop-off standards, fence buffering, and outdoor play hours when adjacent to residences, and will have other hoops to jump through at the state and county level.

Mackedon said this ordinance was only a first step, and the city is hopeful other agencies will reduce barriers as well.

“This is really just the first drop in the bucket,” Mackedon said.

The ordinance is expected to come back to council for adoption in January. If passed, the new rules will go into effect immediately.

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