Mary Jenkins comments to City Council (Tuesday, April 11th)
Below are the comments given by Mary Jenkins at the City Council hearing of the Raven Hills HOA's appeal for the conditional use permit at 50 Mikado Dr. E. (Comments have been shared with permission.)
Hi, my name is Mary Jenkins. I live on Mikado Lane and I also serve on the HOA’s Architectural Control Committee. I am here to express my support for Ms. Warren’s daycare, and to represent a group of young homeowners in the Raven Hills community who feel similarly.
While our HOA’s Board has expressed that they are very unhappy with having a daycare, and have said in the past that they represent nearly all of the Ravenhill’s homes, they do not and cannot represent the entire area’s opinions. This is because they don’t know everyone’s opinion, they have only collected and asked for the negative ones. The average age of our Board is around 60 years old. Through this lens, I can understand how it could be easy for the Board to take a “not in my backyard” position on the daycare –it’s a service they no longer need, as they have already had and raised their families. But, to young families like my own, this daycare is a desirable amenity in what is otherwise a childcare desert.
Now I didn’t know Ms. Warren, nor did I know about her daycare – despite living just seven houses away from it – prior to the City sending postcards about the permit. But before deciding on supporting or opposing the permit, I reached out to Ms. Warren to learn more about her work. She kindly invited me into her home, and showed me how she runs her daycare. Ms. Warren offers multiple services for children mostly aged 3-6 years old. She offers single skill classes such as art, cooking and pre-literacy classes, as well as daycare. Ms. Warren’s programs are wholesome and engaging. Children are included during every aspect of learning. For example, instead of just being given finger paint to paint with, kids go through the whole process of making paint, prepping the paper, setting up & cleaning up the project area, & washing their dishes. For cooking, children actually grind the grain into flour to make their bread, they use measurements and combine ingredients to see interactions between various components, such as bubbling yeast. They set the table, serve each other, and they pick up after themselves. They also either compost the veggie scraps or feed them to the daycare’s bunnies. The children learn how to work together and interact with each other. I left feeling confident that Ms. Warren is a thoughtful and considerate neighbor who loves and respects the community she calls home, putting her full energy into providing an enriching environment for children. I think it is absolutely wonderful that we will have this option for childcare less than a block away from us, and I know our future children would be blessed to have the opportunity to thrive under Ms. Warren’s care.
*****And while there might be concern that the daycare will cause traffic, we have not noticed anything. We already have Rockrimmon Elementary School down the road which creates a long line of cars in the morning and afternoon, but we just drive past it. In a community centered around an elementary school and a park the sounds of children laughing and playing are commonplace here. And while there might be a little noise from this daycare, the levels reported at the last hearing of “over 55 decibels” may seem loud, but in actuality is pretty quiet. For instance a vacuum cleaner is reported at 75 decibels and a normal conversation is reported as 60-70 decibels. I have included a chart from Yale University for reference.
While the Board’s appeal states that this daycare does not fit into this neighborhood due to it being an older neighborhood with original families they mention new residents moving in. Those new residents can be, and several are-young, with children, or those who may start their new families soon. And we are delighted to live very close to a large park, a small neighborhood park, an elementary school, an open space with hiking trails and this daycare. I have tried to tell the board this, to show them my point of view only to be dismissed because it wasn’t the same view as theirs. This neighborhood was meant for families, for children playing, laughing, learning and growing. This daycare is a perfect addition to our neighborhood which encourages and draws in new families every year.
All of this could have been avoided had the Board done their due diligence in reviewing the packets provided to them back in March of 2022 by their HOA management company, which contained information pertaining to this daycare. I was at an HOA slash ACC meeting where it was revealed that none of the board members opened the email attachment containing Ms. Warren’s letter. The Board’s concerns about licensing, permitting, and inspections all could have been alleviated had the Board just taken steps to reach out to Ms. Warren and understand her work. Had the Board been neighborly and just had a conversation about the services Ms. Warren provides, they would understand why there are varying numbers of children present at certain times - and why those numbers are 100% within what is allowed under Ms. Warren’s permit and license status.The reality is that for nine months the Board had no idea this daycare existed until the postcards showed up. Not even on their biweekly drives to find covenant violations did they notice the daycare. Side note, a board member openly admitted to me and others to watching and following families home from the daycare.
I hope you all will recognize Ms. Warren’s work in providing a valuable and critical service to a community that lacks early childcare options. I hope that you’ll take this opportunity to be an advocate for the voices of young families in the Raven Hills community and choose to uphold the permit approved by the City Planning Commission. Thank you for your time.
Hi, my name is Mary Jenkins. I live on Mikado Lane and I also serve on the HOA’s Architectural Control Committee. I am here to express my support for Ms. Warren’s daycare, and to represent a group of young homeowners in the Raven Hills community who feel similarly.
While our HOA’s Board has expressed that they are very unhappy with having a daycare, and have said in the past that they represent nearly all of the Ravenhill’s homes, they do not and cannot represent the entire area’s opinions. This is because they don’t know everyone’s opinion, they have only collected and asked for the negative ones. The average age of our Board is around 60 years old. Through this lens, I can understand how it could be easy for the Board to take a “not in my backyard” position on the daycare –it’s a service they no longer need, as they have already had and raised their families. But, to young families like my own, this daycare is a desirable amenity in what is otherwise a childcare desert.
Now I didn’t know Ms. Warren, nor did I know about her daycare – despite living just seven houses away from it – prior to the City sending postcards about the permit. But before deciding on supporting or opposing the permit, I reached out to Ms. Warren to learn more about her work. She kindly invited me into her home, and showed me how she runs her daycare. Ms. Warren offers multiple services for children mostly aged 3-6 years old. She offers single skill classes such as art, cooking and pre-literacy classes, as well as daycare. Ms. Warren’s programs are wholesome and engaging. Children are included during every aspect of learning. For example, instead of just being given finger paint to paint with, kids go through the whole process of making paint, prepping the paper, setting up & cleaning up the project area, & washing their dishes. For cooking, children actually grind the grain into flour to make their bread, they use measurements and combine ingredients to see interactions between various components, such as bubbling yeast. They set the table, serve each other, and they pick up after themselves. They also either compost the veggie scraps or feed them to the daycare’s bunnies. The children learn how to work together and interact with each other. I left feeling confident that Ms. Warren is a thoughtful and considerate neighbor who loves and respects the community she calls home, putting her full energy into providing an enriching environment for children. I think it is absolutely wonderful that we will have this option for childcare less than a block away from us, and I know our future children would be blessed to have the opportunity to thrive under Ms. Warren’s care.
*****And while there might be concern that the daycare will cause traffic, we have not noticed anything. We already have Rockrimmon Elementary School down the road which creates a long line of cars in the morning and afternoon, but we just drive past it. In a community centered around an elementary school and a park the sounds of children laughing and playing are commonplace here. And while there might be a little noise from this daycare, the levels reported at the last hearing of “over 55 decibels” may seem loud, but in actuality is pretty quiet. For instance a vacuum cleaner is reported at 75 decibels and a normal conversation is reported as 60-70 decibels. I have included a chart from Yale University for reference.
While the Board’s appeal states that this daycare does not fit into this neighborhood due to it being an older neighborhood with original families they mention new residents moving in. Those new residents can be, and several are-young, with children, or those who may start their new families soon. And we are delighted to live very close to a large park, a small neighborhood park, an elementary school, an open space with hiking trails and this daycare. I have tried to tell the board this, to show them my point of view only to be dismissed because it wasn’t the same view as theirs. This neighborhood was meant for families, for children playing, laughing, learning and growing. This daycare is a perfect addition to our neighborhood which encourages and draws in new families every year.
All of this could have been avoided had the Board done their due diligence in reviewing the packets provided to them back in March of 2022 by their HOA management company, which contained information pertaining to this daycare. I was at an HOA slash ACC meeting where it was revealed that none of the board members opened the email attachment containing Ms. Warren’s letter. The Board’s concerns about licensing, permitting, and inspections all could have been alleviated had the Board just taken steps to reach out to Ms. Warren and understand her work. Had the Board been neighborly and just had a conversation about the services Ms. Warren provides, they would understand why there are varying numbers of children present at certain times - and why those numbers are 100% within what is allowed under Ms. Warren’s permit and license status.The reality is that for nine months the Board had no idea this daycare existed until the postcards showed up. Not even on their biweekly drives to find covenant violations did they notice the daycare. Side note, a board member openly admitted to me and others to watching and following families home from the daycare.
I hope you all will recognize Ms. Warren’s work in providing a valuable and critical service to a community that lacks early childcare options. I hope that you’ll take this opportunity to be an advocate for the voices of young families in the Raven Hills community and choose to uphold the permit approved by the City Planning Commission. Thank you for your time.