Birmingham, AL Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Section 17 of the zoning ordinance's Article VI separates child care centers, defined as a facility that provides for the care of 13 or more children for periods of less than 24 hours a day, from the smaller family day/night care homes operated out of a caregiver's own residence. Every child or adult care operator, including center operators, must obtain a zoning certificate of operation from the Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, posted conspicuously at the entrance, before beginning operation; the certificate is revoked immediately if the operator's Department of Human Resources license lapses.

A general requirement bars any child or adult care facility in a residential district from locating within 1,000 feet of another one, though facilities already licensed as of the ordinance's effective date are grandfathered out of that spacing rule. Center-specific standards then require off-street parking under Article V, an approved pick-up and drop-off site plan reviewed by the department of traffic engineering, and in residential districts a signage cap of 18 square feet with no ground sign taller than four feet, lit only by indirect, nonintermittent light.

Playground equipment in a residential district must stay in the rear yard, cover no more than 30 percent of the required rear yard, and sit at least ten feet from any lot line; in a nonresidential district it can be in the rear or side yard, at least three feet from a side or rear lot line, or ten feet if adjacent to a residential zone. A child care center cannot operate out of a multiple-family dwelling unit at all, and where a center is in or next to a residential district, the zoning board of adjustment can limit its hours of operation.