Kenner, LA Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Section 6.05(e)(1) of the Kenner Unified Development Code lists 'Day Care Center, adult' and 'Day Care Center, child' as conditional uses in the R-1, R-1A and RR-1 single-family residential districts, meaning they cannot open by right and instead must go through the conditional use process at Section 6.03(g), including a Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing and City Council vote. The building and site standards are specific: the center must sit on a lot of at least one acre, and the building itself must provide a minimum of 35 square feet of usable indoor play or instruction space per enrolled child.

Outdoors, the code requires at least 75 square feet of usable play or instruction area per child, and none of that outdoor area may sit within the lot's required front yard. The outdoor play area must be enclosed by a fence no less than 4 feet and no more than 6 feet high, and where the property adjoins a residentially zoned lot not used for a similar purpose, an additional wood, metal or masonry fence at least 5 feet high and at least 80 percent opaque is required along that rear or side line.

Parking is also fixed by formula: a minimum of three off-street spaces, or one space per 350 square feet of indoor play or instruction space, whichever is greater, plus a hard-surfaced off-street area for buses or vehicles dropping off and picking up children. The same section requires the regulatory department to enforce Louisiana R.S. 46:1401, the state day care licensing statute, before any permit issues and afterward, and directs the Planning and Zoning Commission to hold a public hearing with certified-mail notice to property owners within 100 feet before the City Council acts.

The city applies a scaled-down version of these standards, twelve thousand square feet rather than one acre, when a day care center is proposed in the R-2 or commercial C-1 districts.