cooked or anything like that. It's really a space for the kids to occupy their time as opposed to
being elsewhere that could be somewhat dangerous or undesirable during those after hours.
So it is only this unit B, which is, again, 1,030 square feet. We have approximately capacity for between 12 and 20 students. And what I wanted to point out a little bit earlier is that the area itself, even though it is industrial, there are three full-fledged educational centers within this just horseshoe of a street.
We have the Redline Elementary School, which is a private school, pre-K through fifth grade, that has a full curriculum. It is state licensed. They do serve fresh foods, hot meals, and they've been in there for over a decade plus.
Two doors down even further, we have the Grow and Learn Education Center, which is essentially,
it looks like the hours of operation are between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and they, too, have a full
contingent of students way, way greater than what we're looking at in an aftercare facility.
And then finally, the primary educational facility in this area is the Bambi Educational
Daycare. They've been here for about 30 years. I do know that a lot of traffic around some of
these is occurring, but they have significantly higher attendance rates during their operations
and significantly longer operational hours, a lot of which is during that peak morning time of day.
The owner is, as I said, a tenant of the property. They stepped in here and tried to do this earlier
in the year and get it going, but they are there for the long haul. The taxes have been paid on
the property and we did meet with the Greater Busselton Civic League. We did get opposition
from the Greater Busselton Civic League. I don't quite understand all of the opposition that was
there, especially given the fact that there's active adult daycare has already been allowed
and several other schools are located in this industrial district, which leads me to the
hardship in that we are looking for a consistency in the area so that we are treated identically to
some of these other applications that have been allowed. And we feel that this is the minimum
variance going from an industrial to a commercial use that is also in the purpose and spirit of the
code and plan because so many variances have been given recognizing that this area is not the
greatest uh or it hasn't been in the past for industrial uses so now the building itself has
been allowed to go into this industrial commercial mixed use which creates slightly greater hardship
on on the use to um you know because its characteristics have already allowed it to have
commercial uses in there um it's it's impossible to be in strict conformity of the code at this
point in an industrial area. This project does not increase congestion in the streets or endanger
the public. And that is because, again, it's a very limited use. We're not talking about a full-time
school in this space. We don't anticipate any impact to neighboring properties.
Unfortunately, I do believe the owner and some of the adjacent neighboring properties,
the residential ones, are having a dispute, but it is not related to the applicant's use,
and it is not related to the portion of the building that the applicants are seeking to
operate out of. There would be no burden on the public facilities or utilities here. It's a
nominal amount of people using, no different than would be if an industrial use were likely allowed
there, probably less. And there is no environmental concern with this project. There's no impact on
the environment or the land at all. So given that these uses have been allowed throughout the
industrial, we'll call it neighborhood street, as well as specifically within this building,
we believe that that is the hardship and that there's only, you know, it would be necessary
to allow this to enable this applicant to have a financially viable economic use in this space.
I do, again, have Ms. Hadar.
Council, can I ask a question?
Yes, please.
Did you attend the meeting?
I did.
And what was the conversations?
So a lot of the conversation is that people had problems with, at least as I, let me go back to it.
at least as I, let me go back to it. People had a lot of problems with this daycare specifically
People had a lot of problems with this day.
saying that it caused a lot of traffic in the area. And so they were concerned more about a
lot of the traffic in the area. And again, I think some of it was dealing with some of the
neighbors in the back. I don't want to tie it to that, but I do know that there is a dispute over
some of this land that raised concerns with people saying that this landlord having problems with the
landlord or the owner, I should say, versus the applicant itself. The neighborhood didn't
necessarily see the need for this, but I don't know that that's, you know, I didn't know how
to answer that because my client has obviously, you know, done her homework as to why she would
want to open this up at this location. So, I mean, those were the primary concerns was the
traffic from other daycares or schools that say that they weren't going to be, but now they're
full-time uh we are okay with limiting the hours of operation to an aftercare facility because
that's what this is so that it doesn't get uh for unit b so that it doesn't cause the neighborhood
more uh traffic congestion but again i did not necessarily understand other than a gripe with
commercial things popping up here and there uh any substantive reason why this would be a a
detriment to the neighborhood okay why don't you bring your client one um i do want to add that
that Ms. Hadar is, she has a bachelor's degree in physical education. She taught phys ed for four
years and she has had about six plus years experience in the daycare and educational
sphere. So she is not without experience and she's just trying to offer this up for people
as a service. With that, I will ask Ms. Hadar to raise her hand, to be unmuted.
tasha the door has been allowed to speak could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer my name is daria heder d-a-r-i-a last name heder h-a-y-d-a-r you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yeah i do please proceed counsel
Thank you. Ms. Haydard, did you have a chance to hear my testimony made to the board today?
Yes. Yes.
Was it true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt my testimony as if it were your own?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
I have any questions.
Yes, I do.
How are the children going to get from wherever they are to this facility?
So my understanding of many aftercare is that some schools do have buses that will transport students to certain locations.
They also may get dropped off or, quite frankly, one of them, I doubt there are the elementary schools in this area.
But there may be people that get dropped off by another method or a family member for those after hours.
Ms. Hadar, if you have any insight into how or what, you know, the method you expect for them to be attending or how they intend to get there, please share.
But you two, the special parents or family members are going to bring kids.
some of the kids
are going to be
dropped off by parents
or family members
I believe we're going to provide
transportation
in the future
you're going to
provide transportation
from where these kids are
to get to this facility
is that what you're saying there again i apologize and that does refresh some of my thinking and
prior conversations i would have answered that directly before but uh my client can still answer
but i do believe that pickup from certain locations is something that they that she is looking to do
with some of the families as well so that there would be pickup from their primary school uh for
certain people i don't know that that's plans been enacted yet but other than again like i said
certain schools will drop students off at potentially uh specific locations or nearby
and i do want to state for the board that i do believe miss hadar's husband is with her
he is you know assisting but if i don't believe he'll be testifying okay i mean because what
you're saying is these are kids from 5 to 12 years old right yes and that the after school
program here is going to be from 2 30 to 6 p.m so if the idea
So if the idea is that these children need some place to go after school, the question is, how do they get to this place?
And you're saying the family members are going to.
well what i'm saying is it's either the the district itself can sometimes provide assistance
uh miss hadar has indicated that she may do some of that with her business or try to
accommodate make arrangements but there there i assume there are some times where parents
are able to maybe get the child or you make arrangements to get the child to the aftercare
so that the another primary caregiver or something can finish off their day at work
I think there's a mix mix match of ways that students could get there or children to get there.
All right. Okay, thank you. I have a question. Yeah, I have a question. So was the RCO during
the RCO meeting was the RCO given this model of just aftercare? Or, you know, do they think it
was just going to be like a full fledged daycare? They were given just the aftercare model, they did
have concern about, well, then it spills over into this and then you, you know, you extend for this
and get longer hours and so on and so forth. And I understand that that is always a concern of
neighborhoods about the representations made to them, but that is why we're okay with provisos
and other things that can be enforced to restrain the use and the times and so forth.
Did you, did you offer some of the provisos, possibly the forcible provisos during the
meeting to the RCO? Yes. This meeting did happen several months ago. We had attempted to meet with
them again in hopes of gathering more data about the other educational centers in the area. But we
were unable to meet with them again because they had already voted. And since it wasn't an amended
application, they didn't feel that a second meeting was necessary, which is fine. But we did
say that we would be willing to allow these provisos. We will limit it. We'll make the
representations and we'll abide by them so that they're enforceable.
Thank you.
Questions should that work?
Yeah, just I guess I have a comment.
I'm kind of don't see the argument,
I guess, that some folks from the community had about issues around traffic.
There are a couple schools already there, so I don't I don't see why that would be an issue.
I just wanted to go on the record to say that I don't see traffic as an issue for this project.
Anyone else on the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Jack O'Hara.
They have been allowed to speak.
good afternoon mr hara good afternoon chairman bergen could you could you please uh state your
name and spell for the court's sonography certainly jack o'hara o apostrophe h-a-r-a
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do please proceed sir uh the issue uh mr kirk uh brought up about uh a dispute with the owner
of the property uh that does exist that did not come into play with the decision uh to oppose this
uh there there is a resident like mr kirk said there's a uh residential neighborhood right behind
it there's now an eight foot high fence uh that runs along that uh that boundary uh and there is
traffic on red line road that was not also uh something that was uh a bother bothersome uh it
is uh there's two other uh daycares on on that strip and the neighbors uh feel like that was a
mistake allowing those in there are kids outside making a lot of noise as kids do as they're
expected to. But it's right outside their door now. And that did not occur in the past.
This is another daycare. And Mr. Kirk, I believe your client said that that was those hours were
going to expand in the future. So these, you know, this limited schedule is not something
we were thinking of, but the reason for the opposition is really the amount of activity,
more activity, that's backed up right to these houses. They're not big yards.
that's backed up right to these houses. They're not big yards. These properties go right up to
their border. And there's a lot of activity and noise that comes out of them. So that was really
the amount. There is, you know, some congestion. They're going to have, you know, UPS warehouses
planned for right across the street, directly across the street from the Bambi. So it is a
concerned, but that did not come into play here for the opposition. Mr. Kirk, do you have any
questions? I don't have questions. No, I just, I'd like to direct the board that this is the
buffer zone that we're talking about between this property and the residentials behind and unit B
is right up front here. And the other daycares, as you'll see, this is the, this is one and this
is another. And then the Bambi daycare would be up lower on the screen, which I don't have in
this picture but i i don't have any further questions i just would like the the board to
know that the issues that i think uh mr o'hara we're talking about deal with this this area of
the yards as well one other quick question how many how many people can you hold in there
how many you have uh between 12 and 20 uh occupancy based on the thousand square feet
thank you mr o'hara yeah you may i add mr uh chairman bergman may i add
The buffer that Mr. Kirk is referring to, a lot of that has been thinned or removed.
So that isn't as big of a buffer as it appears in the image there.
Thank you.
Wait a minute.
Chair, can we keep this picture up?
So where's the outdoor space for this daycare?
Is there outdoor spaces you can show us on this photo?
So the entrance is right where my hand is, and this is the front area. There's no intention of letting the students between 2.30 and 6 running around outside. I mean, that's not, this isn't a full daycare facility.
as you would have here's the red lion elementary which has a yard and then you have the uh the
what's when is this this is the uh the grow and learn center is right here so they they that's
different when you're talking about kids out at recess or something like that there's no intention
to allow the students to be running freely on the lawn out front which you know looks like this
that's all the the other question would be is
so there's no no issue of sending them outside am i correct correct that's they're not they're
not and then the idea i guess the other thing would be is the issue of enlarging the time
right i mean if it's an after-school program we gotta wait for kids to come out of school right
so tell me about that i mean mr o'hara raised the issue about your client said
she's going to change the hours? Not to my knowledge. I mean, if the intent is that this
is a 2.30 to 6 p.m. opportunity for students. And I guess here's where I think I'm thinking
about it. There was talk, well, the student after care, after school care, what does that mean for
summertime? And I think that the answer to that is that there's also after camp. It's the idea of
that hourly window being available for parents to use or guardians to use to to so that's the
only thing i can think of in that sense okay thank you anyone else in the virtual audience
i see no more hands at this time to you planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
the I-2 general industrial zoning at this location. There is no unique physical circumstance or
condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning
code. This is a continuous and viable industrial area and that the city has interest in maintaining