AUSTIN, Texas — More child care centers could soon pop up around Austin thanks to a change councilmembers approved during Thursday's council meeting.
The City moved forward with updating its zoning laws, allowing operators of child care centers to build in locations where they previously could not.
Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) first introduced the idea back in August, where she emphasized the cost and lack of child care centers that had been severely burdening parents.
"With this update to our zoning code, we were able to increase the amount of availability and eligibility for child care centers by threefold. So we increased it by more than 255%," said Fuentes.
The change, which is now in effect, also helps waives fees and offset costs for child care center operators.
"We're going to make it easier for folks so they don't have to go through this really long, tedious and costly process of rezoning just to even get the proper paperwork to be able to build," said Fuentes.
Fuentes added that by reducing zoning barriers, it will increase locations of child care centers and hopefully bring down costs for parents.
"Child care is probably one of the issues that we hear about, that families struggle with... we've got to enable it as cheap as possible, and this is an item that can help us do that," Councilmember Chito Vela (District 4) said during Thursday's meeting.
Fuentes said some restrictions will remain in place to avoid putting child care centers in places they don't need to be, such as industrial areas. Operators will also continue to follow state regulations.
"It's certainly one step up and one tool in the tool kit. There's still so much more that our city needs to be doing to truly ensure that every family can afford a daycare center for their child." said Fuentes.