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Council adopts Child Care Task Force recommendations to pursue inspections, zoning and funding changes
Summary
The council accepted a 90-day Child Care Task Force report documenting affordability and supply gaps and unanimously adopted five recommended city actions including free pre-inspections, plain-language zoning guidance, childcare parking standards, naming childcare in FY28 CDBG funding, and leveraging new state funding tools.
The Child Care Task Force presented a report Monday documenting childcare affordability and supply shortfalls on the Seacoast and recommending five concrete actions the city can take to help.
"When we talk about childcare, the math is just broken. This is a structural market failure," Councilor Hopkins said as she summarized the group's findings, which included survey results showing many families pay $2,000 or more a month and that early-education wages are low compared with regional living-wage estimates.
Hopkins and the task force outlined the five policy asks the council endorsed: advertise and offer free pre-inspections for childcare facilities, develop plain-language zoning and permitting guidance for childcare providers, craft childcare-appropriate parking standards, propose childcare as a named priority in the FY28 CDBG application process, and act to align local work with newly signed state incentives including tax credits for employers that open childcare.
Councilors praised the report's analysis and recommended next steps: naming childcare in the CDBG process, exploring braided funding strategies, and working with regional partners and the state's new programs. The motion to adopt the task force's five recommendations passed unanimously.
The council asked staff to share the full report and begin work on the recommended items, including outreach to potential funders and operational changes that reduce barriers for new and expanding childcare providers.
