New Rochelle, NY Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

6 governs where and how a day-care center can operate in New Rochelle by making it a special-permit use rather than a by-right one: the Planning Board must issue the permit before a center opens. The section fixes a hard size ceiling of 15,000 square feet of area for any day-care center, so a proposal above that footprint cannot be approved under this provision regardless of the site's zoning district. Applicants must submit, and the Board must accept, a transportation management and parking plan that shows how the site will be used and specifically details the steps the applicant will take to address traffic flow and safety, since drop-off and pick-up congestion around day-care centers is the recurring safety concern the Board is directed to weigh.

The section also imposes a citywide spacing rule: day-care centers cannot be located within 500 feet of each other, preventing clustering of multiple centers on the same block or corridor. The provision has been amended three times since its 2007 adoption (2017, 2019 and 2022 ordinances), reflecting the City Council's continued attention to how day-care siting interacts with traffic and neighborhood impact. Because this is a special-permit standard under the Zoning Code's Article on special permit uses, an applicant must go through Planning Board site plan and special permit review, the same process used for other conditional uses in the chapter, rather than obtaining a routine building permit alone; the Building Official does not issue a certificate of occupancy for the use until that Planning Board approval is in hand.