The Gary Common Council gave its approval to requests by two women who plan to open day care centers.
One woman, Debra Young, wants to operate a day care in the 2100 block of Georgia Street, even though two other day cares already operate within the same block.
The other woman, Arnisha Fulton, has two day care centers already, and wants to operate a third in the 1100 block of Idaho Street.
The council voted 8-0 Wednesday, with councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, absent, to approve special use permits that will allow both proposals.
Both women are Gary residents who will convert existing homes day cares. Neither would be used as a residence.
Young said she is renting the Georgia Street house with an option to purchase the property in the future. There had been issues related to unpaid property taxes for the site, although Young on Wednesday produced a document confirming that a $452.60 tax payment was made on Aug. 3.
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Council President Ronald Brewer said that satisfied his tax-related concerns, although he noted other issues related to a lack of outdoor lighting and a nearby vacant property. That caused Brewer to ask his colleagues to add a one-year condition to the approval — meaning Young will have to appear before the Council again next year to show she has addressed the issues.
Councilman Herb Smith, D-at large, said he fears the city is approving so many day care centers that it is likely people convicted of sexual offenses now have a day care near their homes.
He wants the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals to include a check of all day care center requests for any registered sex offenders who might live nearby.
“We’re putting these places in established neighborhoods, but we don’t really know what’s there,” Smith said.
Fulton, who operates two day cares under the name of Magic Ashanti Childcare, said this new facility would supplement her existing facilities in that it would be a place for older children — up to age 12 — to be separate from infants and younger children.
Brewer said he has concerns that day care centers are becoming too corporate, but added he doesn’t really want to turn them away if it can be avoided.
“I understand we don’t want to commercialize the idea of in-home day care,” he said, while adding, “These women are doing exactly what we ask of business, they’re staying in Gary.”
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.