Permitting day-cares to operate without play areas may not be in the best interest of the community, city council has heard.

At their meeting Monday evening, members of council heard from downtown resident Felix Vogt. He said he has concerns with plans to permit day-cares to operate without the onsite outdoor play areas currently required.

'I'm concerned about the wording of the proposed change and its lack of detail.

'This change removes the requirement for any outdoor space for daycares without addressing the need for outdoor space,' he said.

At their May 7 meeting, members of council heard from planning manager Mike Gau. He said his department was recommending that council allow day-cares to operate without the minimum five square metre per child play space that is currently required in the zoning bylaw.

In May, Gau said, the housekeeping initiative was a relaxing of the zoning requirements to allow for day cares to operate in areas where the required space for play may not be immediately available.

'Now we're saying if there's a park nearby within reasonable walking distance, we're talking about 200 metres.'

According to the city, the proposed amendment would make it easier and less expensive to provide day care opportunities downtown.

'The Planning and Development Services Department is receiving an increasing number of applications for child care centres in the downtown area and the lack of available on-site park space has resulted in the denial of those applications.

'It is difficult to provide play areas downtown because lot sizes are small and land is expensive,' council documents state.

'Also, the Child Care Act permits child-care centres to provide play space that is within a reasonable and easy walking distance. Therefore, it is recommended that child-care centres located near a park or a school yard be permitted to use this space to fulfill the play area requirement.'

Vogt said he believes changes to where and how day-cares could operate in the city should be the subject of a more intense public process and not included in a housekeeping bylaw along with other subjects.

'I don't feel this should be passed in a housekeeping amendment.

'I'm concerned about the use of outside space; it doesn't specify much about that space.

'It can be a city park, I don't know. Those are things that should be clarified before we go and make a major change like that,' Vogt said.

Chani Fleshman, co-director of the Creative Play Daycare centre on Strickland Street, said she thinks the idea to allow outdoor play space to be located near child-care operations is a good idea.

'I know it's hard to maintain a play area,' she said. Going to a city- or government-built and maintained playground may offer children a better experience than what daycares could provide on limited funding, Fleshman said.

'There's not a whole lot of money to put up your own playground,' she said.

'We all want to provide the very best for children; that's very expensive.'

Lynda Peters, the owner/operator of the Downtown Days day-care on Sixth Avenue, said she doesn't feel a zoning amendment to allow more businesses to operate downtown is necessary.

'Whitehorse doesn't need any more day-cares. The city has plenty of empty (child care) spaces,' she said.

Peters said she doesn't really have an opinion on zoning changes for day-cares because she believes the industry is facing bigger financial problems and she is aware of some businesses operating with no outdoor play areas already.

'It's probably the least viable enterprise in North America.'