Livonia, MI Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Section 6.13 governs "Day Care Nurseries," the ordinance's term for licensed child care centers as opposed to in-home family or group day care. The use is a waiver use in the NM2 and C-1 Districts, requiring Planning Commission review and City Council approval, and a permitted use outright in the C-2, C-3, and C-4 Districts. To qualify, the site must be at least 10,000 square feet in area and abut a street or thoroughfare with an existing or planned width of at least 86 feet under the city's Future Transportation Map, ensuring drop-off and pickup traffic reaches a road built to carry it rather than a narrow residential street.

The physical safety requirements are specific: the center must maintain a minimum of 5,000 square feet of outdoor play area, and appropriate fencing at least 5 feet in height must encompass that entire outdoor play area, a higher fence standard than the general residential fence rules apply to backyards. Buildings on the site must also be in harmony with the adjacent buildings in the area, a design-compatibility standard reviewed at site plan approval. Critically, the ordinance bars locating a day care nursery in the interior of any residential block, confining the use to sites with frontage on a qualifying thoroughfare rather than tucked behind homes. These standards work alongside, not instead of, the State of Michigan's separate day care licensing requirements administered under 1973 PA 116.