Orem, UT Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Orem City Code Section 22-8-16 sets the zoning path for any commercial child or adult day care business: it is a permitted use in the C1, C2, and HS commercial zones only, so a proposal in a residential or manufacturing zone has no basis under this section. Before opening, the operator must comply with the site plan requirements of Section 22-14-20, and the code layers additional, day-care-specific site plan content on top of that general standard. The site plan submitted to Development Services must show off-street loading and unloading areas designed for dropping off and picking up children and adults, separate from ordinary customer parking, so that vehicle circulation for drop-off does not conflict with parking-lot traffic.

The plan must also show an area for out-of-door activities that is surrounded by a fence at least six feet (6') in height, and the submittal must identify the materials and type of fencing proposed, since the Planning Commission or Zoning Administrator reviews the fence design as part of site plan approval rather than accepting a generic residential fence permit. Because the outdoor play area and the loading area are both mandatory elements of the site plan, a day care site plan that omits either is incomplete and cannot be approved.

The zone restriction and site plan overlay were enacted together in 1998 (Ord. No. O-98-0015) and amended in 2001 (Ord. No. O-01-0021), and they remain the operative provisions in the current code. Operators should coordinate the fenced play area location with the required off-street loading design early, since squeezing both onto a single commercial lot is often the binding site-plan constraint.