City to consider rezoning for daycare

Grand Coulee is going to make an effort to get a daycare center in its Central Business District zone.

The public interest in a daycare center has attracted the attention of city officials, and the ways and means of making a zoning change was discussed last Tuesday night with Vivian Ramsey of SCJ Alliance, the city’s planning group.

The city’s planning council, made up of council members and city staff will have to be reconvened and a recommendation will have to be made to council.

When this is done the recommendation goes before the State Environmental Policy group (SEP), to weave its way through this group’s checklist.

The city, since the change is so small, can request that the review be expedited and this could be done over a 14-day period.

The interest in a daycare center on the city’s Main Street came when Andrea Marconi and Angela Feeley came to council in late March, saying they would like to start a licensed daycare center in the Richard Button business location when Button’s business “Button It” moves to its new location right next to where it is now located.

They reasoned that there isn’t a licensed daycare available for Bureau of Reclamation and Coulee Medical Center workers and that one is sorely needed.

The city took a dim view of the request, stating how difficult it would be to change the Central Business District zoning. It was stated that it could take at least six months. One council member had stated that once you start changing things you could get on a “slippery slope” where there could be a trend towards making changes.

A second attempt was made by the pair, with essentially the same result.

But community interest got the attention of the city, and Mayor Chris Christopherson said that the city would explore the process.

Meanwhile, the women report on their Facebook page they may have found another suitable location in Electric City, in a house owned by Dale and Kathy Baty.