Lakeway resident's request for at-home day care denied again
The Lakeway City Council on March 20 denied a request from a Lakeway resident to resubmit an application for a permit to operate a day care from her home.
Bianca King, who sued the council last year to keep her business, had attempted twice before to obtain a permit and was denied both times. At Monday's meeting, the council had to determine if her third application had significant and relevant enough changes to it to be considered again.
Lakeway’s code of ordinances prohibits a previously denied special use permit application to be submitted again unless it contains significant and relevant differences.
The changes made to King's new application included:
Reducing the number of children she would be able to care for year-round from 12 to five
Changing the hours allowed for an assistant from 30 hours a week to no more than 15 hours a week
Changing her business operations from weekdays 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There was a discussion on the council about the language in King’s request surrounding the definition of the term “five paying children,” which is referenced several times in her application.
“I have a really big issue with '‘five paying children,’” said Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Vance. “I feel like that is a legal loophole for this council to approve or to consider a request that deals with children who are paying. Does that mean if I have a child that I’m watching full-time that their sibling can come after school on a buy-one, get-one free deal because the first child is paying?”
King was at the hearing and said she had no intention of trying to get around the city’s restrictions and that the five-child limit is strictly five individual children. She said the term “five paying children” was meant to make the application “simple and clear.”
The council requested an amendment be made to the application to change the language from “five paying children” to “five client children,” which King agreed to.
However, voting was tied at 3-3 with the absence of council member Sanjeev Kumar, and the request was denied.
As a result, if King wants to try again, she will have to make more changes to her application and re-request the council’s determination on the significance of those changes.
King is a single mother who provided child care for several local families. She opened her day care after she was laid off in the pandemic and it is now her main source of income.
King registered her business as a babysitting service with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in January 2021 to watch up to three preschool kids in her home in addition to her own two children. She later passed a voluntary state inspection that allowed her to watch up to four children in addition to her own.
That fall, King received notice that she needed a special use permit from the city to operate a business out of her home because without it her day care violated the city’s code of ordinances.
Residents spoke in opposition to the day care business at two public meetings on the topic. One cited the disruption the day care caused neighbors and golfers at the Hills of Lakeway golf course, which borders Kings property on one side.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lakeway resident's request for at-home day care denied again
