Grays Harbor County, WA Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Under § 17.08.010, a child day care center is a facility caring for a group of children from one month through twelve years of age for less than twenty-four hours, expressly not including a home day care. Because it serves more children over a wider age range than a home day care, the code treats it as a conditional use rather than a by-right one. In the G-1 General Development One District, § 17.20.030(H) runs four conditions in parallel: the center must comply with the standards of the Grays Harbor environmental health division, hold a license from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, meet the building and fire codes adopted in Chapter 15.04, and it cannot be sited on land mapped under RCW 36.70A.70 as a geologically hazardous area, a frequently flooded area, or a wetland.

The R-3 Resort Residential District repeats nearly the same four conditions at § 17.36.030(I), still naming the 1994 Uniform Fire Code and 1994 Uniform Building Code and their successors rather than the Chapter 15.04 cross-reference, and citing RCW 36.70A.170 instead of RCW 36.70A.70 for the critical-areas exclusion. All four conditions in either district have to be satisfied before the board of adjustment issues the conditional use permit; there is no shortcut for a center that fails the flood, wetland, or geohazard screen regardless of how it scores on the other criteria.