The Colorado Springs Planning Department, interest groups working for the well-being of small children, and the older established downtown neighborhoods are all talking to each other and trying to work out a plan for increasing the number of child care facilities in our community.

That is because there is a mounting child care crisis in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and even in the nation.

Both single parents and couples searching for reliable child care encounter limited availability as well as long waiting lists and sky-high charges.

The problem is a simple one of supply and demand. Many more families are trying to find reliable and reasonably priced child care than there are reliable facilities to provide it.

Sherry Lynn Boyles, president of Joint Initiatives for Youth and Families, an advocacy group for children, told KOAA-TV that Colorado Springs has “47,000 children 5 and under, and only … 18,400 licensed childcare spots.”

The Planning Department wants to make it simpler and more convenient for entrepreneurs to open and operate new day care facilities. But that can be a challenging and expensive process, especially for small providers who want to operate out of their homes.

And city planners say outdated zoning regulations need to be modernized to help solve the problem. They are busy drafting new zoning rules that would permit both small and large child care facilities to go into business in more neighborhoods throughout the city.

One aspect of the new plan would grant child care facilities the ability to cut costs and prices by setting up in already constructed buildings such as churches, social centers and private homes.

According to Allison Stocker, a senior planner with the city, new child care facilities would be allowed “by right.”

That means that a new child care center could be opened in a church, social center or private home without permission from the Planning Commission or City Council.

City planners would also like to find ways to bring new child care facilities into residential zones such as single-family zones (R1) and two-family zones (R-2).

City planners are also drawing maps of the city that reveal areas with the greatest lack of child care facilities, thereby showing where more child care facilities are most needed.

“We’re working on maps to figure out where those gaps are, where we don’t have enough child care,” said Stocker.

It has long been pointed out that certain parts of the city have to deal with more crippling shortages of child care facilities than others.  Southeast Colorado Springs has long been viewed as the hardest hit by inadequate child care services.

The southeast is filled with military families, Army and Air Force, who are living off base. Many have young children and desperately need reasonably priced child care services. 

Affordability is a pressing issue. Child care expenses can cost as much as $20,000 per year per child, putting real pressure on family finances.

Sherry Lynn Boyles, of Joint Initiatives for Youth and Families, has a map of the Colorado Springs area that shows where child care is “adequate” in the community and where it is “scarce,”

Areas shown on the map as adequate are central Colorado Springs, including the downtown area and the surrounding neighborhoods. Also getting an adequate rating is the area east of Academy Boulevard near its intersection with Woodmen Road.

Areas on the map shown as scarce include southeast Colorado Springs and east Colorado Springs along the eastern side of Powers Boulevard.

The general thrust of the child care availability map is that the farther you get from downtown Colorado Springs, the more difficult it is to find a good child care facility near your home.

So, there is general agreement among the three major interested parties — the Colorado Springs City Planning Department, interest groups working for the well-being of small children, and the older established downtown neighborhoods — that the child care problem is a very serious one and demands immediate attention.

City planning has created two categories of child care center facilities. One category is small child care centers for only six to 15 children.

The second category is large child care centers for 16 or more children with no upper limit on the number of children involved.

City planning wants to put the small child care centers in single-family zones (R1) and in two-family zones (R-2). City planning also wants to put the large child care centers in two-family zones (R2).

But many homeowners who live in single-family and two-family zones argue that no child care center of any size should be allowed in a residential zone.

Child care center facilities are required to have outdoor playgrounds attached to them. These outdoor playgrounds, particularly the larger ones attached to child care centers in two-family zones, generate intolerable amounts of playground noise and should not be allowed in any residential zone.

The Colorado Springs City Planning Department, interest groups working for the well-being of small children, and the older established downtown neighborhoods are continuing their search for ways to increase the availability of child care center facilities in Colorado Springs.

Stay tuned.

News columnist Bob Loevy is a retired professor of political science at Colorado College who writes about Colorado and national politics