Planning commission OKs permit for in-home daycare

The city of Medford cleared the way for an in-home daycare provider to get her state license.

Kimberly Konkel has operated an in-home daycare at 226 N. 3rd Street since 2016 and when going through the process to get licensed by the state she discovered she needed to get a conditional use permit from the city to have a home-based business.

“I didn’t know I needed a conditional use permit,” Konkel said to members of the city planning commission on Monday evening. She said she is an honest individual and apologized for not realizing she needed it before now.

She said she is getting licensed to have up to 8 children at her home and has parents use the alleyway to drop off and pick up their children. She said this has worked smoothly and flows well avoiding traffic issues.

City planner Bob Christensen noted that letters were sent to all nearby property owners as well as a notice running in The Star News. No one attended the public hearing and Christensen said the only other feedback was from a neighbor who got a letter and stopped to pay a utility bill and asked if they needed to come to the meeting.

The only question among planning commission members was what size sign, if any, would be allowed. The draft permit prepared by Christensen allowed up to an 8 square foot sign (2 feet by 4 feet). However commission member Luke Dixon noted the ordinance only allows a 2 square foot sign.

Currently Konkel does not have a sign for her business. She said she did not know if she would want a sign in the future but also noted that 2 square feet is very small. “That is pretty small,” she said.

She also noted that she has not wanted to put a sign in her front yard because of keeping her home separate from the child care. Commission member Kris Brandner asked if they should decide on a sign now to keep Konkel from having to come back in the future.

“We beat that sign issue to death,” Brandner said of the last time signs were brought up.

Konkel said that for now she was OK without having a sign.

Commission members unanimously approved the conditional use permit.

In other business, commission members:

  Received an update on the revised floodplain mapping for the county. According to Christensen, the federal government is in the process of updating the floodplain maps for the county that were last updated in 1978. The changes are available to be viewed online at the FEMA website. He said the planning commission will need to take action in the future to update city codes referencing the older maps to reflect the new ones. Federal codes restrict what can be built in floodplains and regulate how existing structures can be replaced.

  Received word that the final plat for the Simek subdivision at the end of Pep’s Drive has been approved and filed.