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

Group child care homes are a special-approval use in Southfield's single-family residence districts under § 5.62A, and once approved they must comply with the specific operating conditions in § 5.62B(6). Only the care provider and his or her immediate family may reside in the home, ruling out a facility run by staff who don't actually live there. The indoor space standard requires a minimum of thirty-five square feet of indoor activity space per child, and that figure specifically excludes hallways, bathrooms, storage areas and cloak rooms, kitchens, reception and office areas, and non-habitable basement space, so the usable-space calculation can't be padded with incidental square footage.

Outdoors, the home needs at least twelve hundred square feet of play area, and it doesn't have to be entirely on-site: the ordinance allows it to be provided within five hundred feet at a public park or other outdoor facility reachable by a public walkway. Any outdoor play area kept on the subject property must sit in the rear or side yard only, and it must be enclosed by a completely obscuring decorative masonry wall or an ornamental fence at least six feet tall. Drop-off and pickup for children unrelated to the care provider is barred between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., the home cannot display any signage advertising the business, and the property's appearance and maintenance must stay consistent with the surrounding neighborhood's visible character, so the use doesn't read as a commercial operation from the street.