Port Coquitlam daycare proposal gets second chance

From being rejected to getting a second chance, a proposed Port Coquitlam daycare is now being reconsidered after the project was nixed by city councillors last month.

Mayor Brad West used his unique power to bring back the project after some locals pushed back on the initial 5-1 vote that saw the project scrapped.

Amar Kallu, who brought the plan for the 65-space child-care centre on Grant Avenue to council, says he “had no clue” what West was going to do. Regardless, he says he’s excited the project is getting a second shot.

“I think the mayor was spot on with the research that he did into the street and the overall child-care operations. I think he has a good understanding of how a child-care centre operates, and he was able to relay that yesterday in the meeting,” Kallu told CityNews Wednesday.

Initial concerns about the project were centred around things like a lack of parking in the area, traffic safety, and noise from the daycare.

“It’s gonna hurt our property values as well which I don’t think is fair to residents of the street,” one person living nearby told council.

“I can not imagine the traffic congestion it will bring up on our street,” another said.

“We have parking issues already, people are always parking wherever they want, often times we can’t find parking in front of our homes there,” another added.

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Kallu hopes that neighbours will see the value of the centre and “loosen up.”

“I think, through the operations, they’ll see that it wasn’t as bad as what they were thinking the entire time. The mayor said it best: we operate hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. A lot of that time is when neighbours are at work, and when they’re getting home from work we’re closing up our doors and nobody’s at our centre. We’re also closed on weekends and long weekends, so there’s actually no traffic that’s coming in and out of the daycare centre at those times,” he explained.

Kallu has opened other child-care centres in Metro Vancouver. He notes there have not been any issues at any of those other locations.

Despite the minor setbacks with regards to the Port Coquitlam plan, he says he doesn’t feel deterred from moving forward.

“I feel as though municipalities and all levels of government are working towards establishing more child care because of the need of it. Although this was a hiccup in the development of this project, the rallying support that we got from the media and now we’re getting additional support back from the municipality as well, it’s great to see,” Kallu said.

“I do understand the concerns of residents with child care moving into a residential community. However … we don’t operate like elementary schools or high schools, where there’s a bunch of traffic at one time. We do have a long period of time where pick ups and drop offs are happening, so that allows us to lessen the impact of traffic that would occur into that residential area.”

With the mayor giving the project another shot, Kallu says there will be more consultation with planners, who will look at alternative ideas for things like parking and drop off locations.

West, meanwhile, says child care is vital to the community, which is why he used his intervention powers for the first time to bring the project back.

The mayor adds there’s an urgent need for more child-care spaces, noting already-long wait lists at many facilities continue to grow.

“This is not some sort of frivolous nice to have within the community, this is a basic requirement,” West said.

With files from Monika Gul