Cracking the Code: How Boston is Trying to Address Child Care Through Zoning
Our report examines how Boston’s zoning code supports child care provision across the city, especially in terms of accessibility and affordability. We worked with local nonprofit Community Labor United (CLU), which brings together labor and community-based organizations around specific interest areas.
CLU’s Care That Works coalition encountered a unique zoning ordinance that literally builds child care into Boston’s development process. First passed in the Midtown Cultural District in 1989, the “Inclusion of Day Care Facilities” (IDF) regulation is currently active in 15 zoning districts (development areas) clustered in the downtown area. The text of the ordinance–with some minor variations states that buildings which create above a certain threshold of new floor space must a) set aside a portion for a child care facility or b) build such facilities off-site.
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Our report examines how Boston’s zoning code supports child care provision across the city, especially in terms of accessibility and affordability. We worked with local nonprofit Community Labor United (CLU), which brings together labor and community-based organizations around specific interest areas.
CLU’s Care That Works coalition encountered a unique zoning ordinance that literally builds child care into Boston’s development process. First passed in the Midtown Cultural District in 1989, the “Inclusion of Day Care Facilities” (IDF) regulation is currently active in 15 zoning districts (development areas) clustered in the downtown area. The text of the ordinance–with some minor variations states that buildings which create above a certain threshold of new floor space must a) set aside a portion for a child care facility or b) build such facilities off-site.
