Casper, WY Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Casper Municipal Code Section 8.12.020 makes it unlawful to operate a day-care facility within the city without meeting Chapter 8.12's standards and holding both a current health license and a current certificate from the Wyoming Department of Health and Social Services. Section 8.12.030 requires every day-care facility to provide indoor play area equal to what the city fire code requires for each child, plus a fenced outdoor play space consistent with the state health department's standards for each child. Section 8.12.040 layers zoning onto those health rules: a family day-care home, caring for the operator's own household plus a few children, is a permitted accessory use in any residential zone, while a group day-care home is permitted outright in R-3, R-4 and PUD zones but needs a special use permit in R-1, R-2 and R-5.

Group day-care centers and infant day-care centers need a special use permit in every residential zone. Sections 8.12.050 through 8.12.080 spell out that permit process: an application to the city engineer's office listing the operator, location, facility type and capacity; a public hearing with notice to landowners within three hundred feet; and, if twenty percent or more of adjacent lot owners within one hundred forty feet protest, a permit issued only by a three-fourths vote of the governing body. A special use permit runs one year, automatically terminates if the state certificate lapses, and is nontransferable. Violating Chapter 8.12 is a misdemeanor under Section 8.12.090, penalized under the general penalty in Chapter 1.28.