The Homer Advisory Planning Commission voted against the conditional use permit to build a childcare facility at 560 Noview. I, like everyone else, feel childcare is important. I feel my neighbors and I are important in the community also. I would like it to be noticed that the plan was for a childcare/preschool facility, six-car unpaved parking lot and playground, all on a 75-foot wide lot, all five feet from my home. I live in an urban residential zoned area, the less than quarter acre lots were designed for residential homes. 

Small Pond childcare is currently in a residential/business zone on more than half an acre, on a corner lot. What had been planned was too large for the small lot at 560 Noview,  partially evidenced by the fact that 750 square feet of the  playground would have been in the utility easement. 

The home values in the area also would have plummeted. 

I did say it would be noisy, how could it not be, 12 hours a day cars coming and going, parking spilling out on to the street, children playing, the extreme close proximity to my home and neighboring properties. When asked by the commissioners if she would consider a wooden fence, Ms. Webster said she would like to stay with her short rope netting she has at her current location. 

We look forward to one day having a neighbor on that lot, we expect there will be the normal amount of noise from a family. The noise and traffic of a small  school with numerous children and adults however is not appropriate for this small urban residential street. This isn’t Mom watching a few children in her home; it’s an obviously successful, growing business. 

I feel this high traffic childcare/preschool facility, with many children and several employees, would be better suited in a business area, on a larger lot, that could accommodate the large number of children, adults and vehicles coming and going 12 hours a day.  

Penny Cramer