Over on the outskirts of Hyde Park, in a small nondescript house at the corner of Red River and 49th, it’s naptime. Soft music plays, the shades are drawn, and, in a corner, Isabel Huerta has just finished burping one of the six children who spend their days at Sammy’s House, a day care center for special-needs kids ages 3 and younger.
Sammy’s House is Huerta’s brainchild — named after her deceased son, Samuel, who was born with Down Syndrome and a host of other conditions that made him “medically fragile.” “I wasn’t sure what all of that meant,” she said. “I thought that I would be able to go back to work to help support the family. And lo and behold, no day care would take him. We figured that if this was happening to us, that it had to be happening to other families.”
Huerta discovered there wasn’t a single day care facility in Austin that catered to special-needs children. So, with the help of friends and family, Sammy’s House was born in 1999. The day care, which Huerta began operating out of her home in South Austin, is a nonprofit school supported by corporate donors and nearly 300 individuals. Its mission is threefold: To provide quality child care with curriculum designed to help the children — all of whom are developmentally delayed — prepare to enter school, to provide family support, and to “bring the value of diversity to the community,” Huerta said. “It is important for us to be in a neighborhood, to bring the kids to where [other] kids and families live.”
When Sylvia Odem, the parent of one of Sammy’s kids, offered to let the day care move into her Red River rental property and expand its services, Huerta and the Sammy’s House board jumped at the chance. The property — centrally located, near two hospitals, and in an eclectic neighborhood — seemed an ideal location, Huerta said. “It’s just perfect.”
Or so she thought. When Sammy’s House became interested in doubling its enrollment from six kids to 12, Odem — as the property owner — had to apply for a conditional use permit before the day care could operate in the SF(single-family)-3 zoned neighborhood at the higher enrollment level. Without the permit, Sammy’s House can continue to rent the property and enroll six children, Huerta said, but in order to help more families — and to pay the rent — the center needs the enrollment increase. And that’s where the problems started — problems that led nearly 30 neighbors to oppose the city Planning Commission’s decision to grant Sammy’s House a permit. The commission voted 6-3 to approve the permit, but neighbors are appealing the decision. (The matter will be taken up again at the commission’s April 11 meeting.)
“It’s a difficult situation, because we’re all very sympathetic to the issues involved,” said Debbie Volker, who lives next door to the little house at 4814 Red River. “The concern is about the precedent it would set.” Neighbors contend that allowing the day care to expand would irrevocably harm their neighborhood by increasing traffic in an already congested area, open the door to an influx of commercial development in their “strictly residential” neighborhood, and lower the property values of area homes. “Our concern is about the appropriateness of the location,” Volker said.
With the higher enrollment, neighbors said they expect traffic to increase when kids are dropped off and picked up and when therapists occasionally visit the school. For example, they point out, the No. 15 Capital Metro bus already has a hard time navigating the 49th Street corner.
Sammy’s House staff and supporters disagree. In fact, they note, city staff recommended their application for the permit as long as Sammy’s met certain requirements — including developing a parking plan for the center’s staff and parents, finding an alternate site for after-hours parent-training sessions and board meetings, putting the children’s outside play area away from the neighbor’s fence line, and restricting enrollment to no more than 12 kids. Huerta said she and the board of Sammy’s House are more than willing to abide by those conditions. But for the neighbors, that promise hasn’t been enough. Who is going to monitor the compliance, they ask, especially in terms of enrollment? And how would you stop another business from coming in and commercializing the neighborhood once Sammy’s House moved on? Huerta said she and Odem are more than willing to address both issues — and have. Under rules set by the Dept. of Protective and Regulatory Services, the state agency that licenses day care centers, this facility would be limited to a maximum of 12 children due to staff ratio and square-footage guidelines. And Odem says she has pledged not to allow the house to be rented or sold with the conditional use permit still in place. “We are trying to work with the neighbors,” Odem said, “but they’re afraid of the unknown.”
And, she added, the contention that the day care would “degrade the fabric of the neighborhood” is something of a red herring. Nearly half the homes within 300 feet of the day care are rental properties, she said, and more than one of the neighbors — including a couple that live across the street — also run businesses out of their homes. “There’s a need for this day care,” said Odem. She’s frustrated that the neighbors are being so difficult.
John Kneten, who lives across the street and runs an at-home business with his wife, said their opposition isn’t about the day care, but about development. “Here’s the deal: How do you oppose something this good?” he asked. “The real issue is not about kids or special-needs kids or any of these heartstring issues. It’s really about inappropriate commercial development in a neighborhood.” It would be one thing, Kneten said, if the folks at Sammy’s House had sought out other property and this was their last resort. That is not what happened, he contends.
Volker agrees. “We would like to work with [Sammy’s],” she said, but the day care hasn’t taken up neighbors’ offers to compromise or help find another space. Volker and Kneten both maintain that there are more appropriate spaces, complete with zoning and infrastructure that could easily accommodate the day care without burdening their neighborhood.
But locating the facility in a commercial property would take away from the home-like experience Sammy’s House aims to provide its kids, and would lessen the diversity the center hopes to bring to the neighborhood, Huerta said. “The neighbors have suggested we go over to a strip mall or an office building,” she said. “Well, children don’t belong in strip malls or office buildings — they belong in neighborhoods.”
This article appears in April 5 • 2002.