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Home My WebLink About4/16/2019 Item 13, Love Christian, Kevin From:Kim Love < To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Harmon, Heidi; Pease, Andy; Christianson, Carlyn; Gomez, Aaron; Stewart, Erica; City_Attorney; Johnson, Derek Subject:Tonight's Council Meeting Dear Mayor and Council members, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and speak to the Major City Goals and budget that are being addressed at tonight’s meeting. My name is Kim Love and, I own and direct a child care center in San Luis Obispo with a wait list of 182 of our community's children for only 60 available slots. My hope is that funding could be allocated for supporting child care projects within the housing element of the budget for this major city goal. I was so excited to see that the city council has put affordable housing as a top city goal, and we know that the majority of people that need housing are families. For most families, affordable housing will not be effective without affordable and accessible childcare to go with it. As the creator for my business’ budget, I know that a budget is a reflection of an organization’s priorities. I think that it goes without saying that creating a world that supports our next generation is a top priority. We must support a thriving and healthy future for our young people by pursuing environmental action and affordability going hand-in-hand with opportunities for their families to work and have access to meaningful care. We are in a child care crisis and, we need your help. A coalition of childcare, early education providers, and business leaders are coming together to assure we can most effectively advocate for our next generation together. We are asking that we form a partnership with the city to make a plan for the existing child care needs that are not being met currently and for the near future when we have more than a thousand new homes with families that will desperately need child care. This issue impacts mostly women but affects all parents. It impacts our workforce and ultimately our economic vitality when parents can’t find a place to care for their children. I would love to see the city consider child care facilities being implemented in all new developments and housing projects, even Senior living centers could have integration with childcare. How great would that be to see all generations sharing resources and learning from one another! Many cities and states require developers to provide for more students in their schools and child care centers. I would propose that the city implement a small development impact fee with the understanding that building of the much-needed housing will create an even bigger need for child care that is already so scarce in this city. The city could even i the construction of centers during the planning stages of new developments. We would like to see confirmation that we have looked at the city as a whole to ensure that we have updated zoning in every place to allow for child care. We need to maximize the possibilities by thinking of creative ways to lessen the traffic impact on a zone and lowering the heavy permit fees for those who want to build new child care centers. This is a low profit and high liability business that is a need- based service to our community and an essential part of our economic growth. We recognize that asking for prioritization of this issue takes resources from other places and are mindful and respectful of that. Our hope is that if this is incorporated into the Housing goal, there could be some collaboration with the funding that is already in place and some collaboration with developers. I would like to close by acknowledging the amazing work you are doing and have already done for our city. I know personally how difficult it is for me to create my own school’s budget so, I imagine that it would be 1000 times harder to make a budget for an entire city! We recognize and honor the incredible process that you and your staff go through to listen to the community and it is my hope that together we can prioritize caring for 1 this next generation that we are equipping now to be our next doctors, mothers, fathers, and community leaders! Thank you for your time, service and leadership. Sincerely, Kim Love Kim Love Director/ Owner Bright Life Playschool License #406215229 805-345-9628 calplayschool@gmail.com info@brightlifeplayschool.com 2