The Mount Vernon United Methodist Church in Danville has seen a 60% increase in enrollment for its child care programming in the last two years. The church is hoping to expand its playground to accommodate this growth and needs permission from the city’s commission of architectural review to do so.
The commission reviews all new construction, exterior renovations and signs in Danville’s Old West End Historic District. It will meet at 3 p.m. Thursday.
About 52% of the Danville-Pittsylvania area is considered a child care desert, meaning that lack of adequate or affordable child care is a significant challenge for many residents. This issue is also an inhibitor to economic growth in the region, according to Virginia Tech researchers.
Several new child care businesses have come before Danville’s planning commission and city council in recent months, with the goal to expand the supply of child care offerings to meet growing demand.
The Mount Vernon United Methodist Church has been working with the Center for Early Success and the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation for two years to expand enrollment.
“As such, we also need to expand our outdoor play options,” says an application to the commission of architectural review.
The church wants to increase the playground’s footprint from about 1,600 square feet to about 3,000 square feet, according to a staff report in the meeting’s agenda packet.
This will involve flattening a sloped, grassy play area, extending the playground surface, installing new playground equipment and converting an existing window into a door to allow for playground access.
Staff recommends approval of this application, on the condition that the church submit final engineering plans addressing grading, drainage and site accessibility.
This is the only meeting in Danville and Pittsylvania County this week.
