Lee County denies mother’s home day care plan despite staff support, corrections to objections

LEESBURG — A day after Lee County commissioners voted down her plan to care for five young children in her home, Sharemer Jones returned to the county planning office with her infant daughter to ask how to appeal.

Commissioners denied the conditional use request Tuesday despite recommendations for approval from county planning staff and the Lee Planning Commission. The decision followed objections from a neighbor who described a commercial rezoning, a possible 12-child operation and business rights that would pass to future owners — none of which matched the proposal before the board.

Jones said she received an emailed denial letter Wednesday morning, visited the planning office and emailed a request to appeal. She was awaiting instructions on the next steps.

“I can accept no,” she said. But Jones says the explanations offered did not justify the decision.

Her proposal would add five spaces in a county where a directory compiled from Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning records lists eight licensed child care centers and two family child care homes. Their combined licensed capacity is 825 children, including some school-age care, though that does not indicate how many openings are available.

Eight programs list infant care. None lists opening before 6:30 a.m. Jones proposed opening at 6 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s child care price database puts Lee County’s median center-based infant care price at $143 a week in 2022, about $7,400 for a full year. Infant care in a family child care home was $130 a week, although those figures describe historical prices, not current rates.

Jones said a mother seeking care for her 6-month-old son contacted her after the meeting to ask what would happen next.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Ray Miller, who said he had lived at 155 Coston Road for 40 years, was the only resident to speak against the request.

He called it a “proposed rezoning” and said approval would allow Jones to change businesses if the day care failed. A future buyer, he said, would also have the right to open a business of their choosing.

Chairman Luke Singletary corrected both points. Jones had requested conditional use approval for a home day care, not commercial rezoning. The property would remain residential, and the approval would not transfer to a new owner, he said.

“It will still be residential,” Singletary said. “It’s not rezoning it to a commercial business lot.”

The staff report likewise said the proposal would operate within the existing home without an expansion and would not authorize a separate commercial child care center.

Miller also said hiring another employee would allow Jones to increase the number of children to 12.

“She can have as many as 12 kids,” he said. “If she hires another employee, that allows her to have as many as 12. That’s Georgia state law.”

Jones acknowledged that she had given the Planning Commission incorrect information about hiring help and caring for 12 children according to state guidance. However she corrected that statement during Tuesday’s hearing.

State rules generally limit family child care learning homes to six unrelated children. A separate provision allows up to 12 children under age 13 when resident or related children are included, subject to other requirements. It does not authorize 12 unrelated children simply because an assistant is hired.

Regardless of that distinction, the county’s proposed conditions limited Jones to five children who did not live at the home. Staff wrote that the restriction would prevent expansion without additional county review. No nonresident employee or assistant was proposed.

Miller’s traffic warning also relied on the larger number. He described six to 12 cars lining up, potentially blocking emergency vehicles and backing onto Middle Road.

The proposed conditions required all drop-offs, pickups, parking and turnarounds to occur on Jones’ property. Staff described a driveway and turnaround allowing vehicles to leave without backing onto Coston Road and found the use was “not expected to create a substantial change in neighborhood character or an unreasonable traffic burden” due to her property’s location. 

The proposed conditions prohibited the roadside parking and queuing Miller warned about.

“I’m the first driveway you get to,” Jones said Wednesday, questioning why parents visiting her home would be treated as traffic through the neighborhood.

Miller also cited the absence of fire hydrants “for a commercial property.” The request would not make the lot commercial, and the proposed conditions required applicable fire-safety approvals before Jones could open.

“This side of the road has always been a nice, quiet residential neighborhood, and is mostly retirees with no kids and no need for a daycare or any other business, for that matter,” Miller said.

Jones disputed the suggestion that his objection reflected everyone’s circumstances or wishes. She and her husband work, she said, and some neighbors supported her plan.

“But what about the ones that you have that do agree to it?” she asked Wednesday.

Commissioner George Walls moved to deny the request, and Commissioner Billy Mathis seconded the motion, saying he considered such uses intrusive in residential neighborhoods. The motion passed unanimously.

Jones, 38, told commissioners she had worked in law enforcement for seven years and in child care before that. Her daughter’s birth this summer prompted her to consider a different way to work.

Her application sought care for five children from birth through age 4, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, alongside her own infant. Staff recommended prohibiting organized outdoor play before 8 a.m.

A commissioner asked whether she had considered a commercial or mixed-use site instead. Jones said working at home would let her care for her baby while managing her older children’s activities.

In Wednesday’s interview, she said that question missed the purpose of her application.

“I didn’t put in an application for a commercial property,” Jones said. “It’s from my home.”

She wanted “some type of income from home while I’m still being flexible with my family,” she said.

“If I try to take on a whole center, I won’t be able to give much of my attention to my own child, and that wasn’t the purpose for leaving law enforcement,” Jones said. “I wanted to keep it small.”

She praised Planning Director Kara Hanson and Planner William Fryer for guiding her through the process.

“They were so amazing when it came down to helping me out throughout this process,” she said.

The same night commissioners denied her request, they agreed to serve as fiscal agent if Lee County Family Connection receives a state early-learning grant. Early childhood access is among the program’s possible focus areas.

Jones said she wanted to follow the process and operate legitimately. She also questioned why her family’s needs should count less than those of retired neighbors.

“I have the right to be out here just like anybody else, whether I’m retired or not,” she said.