A New Park-and-Ride: Drop Kids, Hop Trolley

San Diego transit officials, who operate buses and trolleys, are now going to get into the day-care business as well.

Plans call for two day-care centers to be built and operated next to San Diego Trolley stations so parents can drop off their children on their way to work and pick them up on their way home. It’s the newest variation of a park-and-ride facility: park your kids and ride to work.

If there was ever any doubt about the need for such facilities, they were erased when several women in the transit office headquarters got wind of the idea and asked if they could put their own children on the waiting list for the day-care facilities, which haven’t yet opened.

‘Becoming an Expert in Baby-Sitting’

The women learned of the proposal when they saw a letter written to city officials by Jack Limber, chief counsel for the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, supporting the establishment of a day-care center near the San Diego Trolley headquarters at 12th Street and Imperial Avenue.

“There is a pent-up demand for child-care centers in this city,” Limber said. “I’m becoming an expert in baby-sitting.”

MTDB, which operates transit systems--including the popular trolley in the southern half of San Diego County--has become a front-runner in the establishment of day-care centers at the urging of its board chairman, former state Sen. James Mills, and with the help of private developers.

The first of its trolley stop day-care centers will open this fall at the 47th Street trolley station south of Market Street.

W.K.B. Associates, which is building a housing complex near the East Line trolley stop in Southeast San Diego, has negotiated a 50-year lease on MTDB property about half a block from the station and is building a preschool center to serve families in the housing complex and trolley riders.

Prem Dean, executive director of Mt. Erie Christian Academy and of the Mt. Erie Trolley Day Care Center, expects to open the center in four to six weeks, after construction is completed and state licenses obtained.

The center, which will accommodate about 50 youngsters from the ages of 2 to 5, will operate on a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekday schedule to accommodate working parents.

Dean said that there already is a waiting list for the facility, which is designed to meet the needs of residents of the adjoining subsidized housing complex, “working parents who ride the trolley, and single parents in particular.”

Mt. Erie Day Care is a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Mt. Erie Baptist Church and supported by the church congregation, Dean said.

Negotiating With Private Firms

Limber said he is negotiating with several other private companies about building trolley stop day-care centers along the trolley routes as part of the MTDB program to attract private development.

Limber said the day-care centers will also promote trolley ridership among working parents.

The proposed day-care facility near the MTDB headquarters at 12th and Imperial is to be operated by two women who now run two Lad ‘N’ Lassie Children’s Learning Centers in National City, Limber said.

The women, Kathleen Baldwin and Nancy Thompson, are now shepherding their day-care center through the San Diego city planning department. A letter Limber wrote supporting the two in their efforts to obtain city permits alerted MTDB employees to the day-care project.

‘Amazing’ Amount of Interest

“It is amazing the amount of interest that there is in this program,” he said. “I’m surprised that someone didn’t think of it earlier.

“Once we get these first two centers up and operating, I am hopeful that others will step forward with similar proposals.”

MTDB has excess capacity in some of the trolley station parking lots on its South Line from downtown San Diego to San Ysidro and on its recently opened East Line from downtown to El Cajon, Limber said.

“We are not looking to realize maximum profit from this property and may be able to offer incentives to other groups interested in starting up day-care facilities at other sites along the trolley line,” Limber said.

In addition to lower-cost property leases, the transit agency also can offer potential day-care center operators a bit of political clout. The MTDB board consists of elected officials from cities throughout the county, which should help an applicant in obtaining needed local zoning and building permits for the trolley stop day-care centers, Limber said.

Mills, chairman of the MTDB executive board, could not be reached to comment Friday, but Limber said the former state senator “has taken a strong stance” in favor of promoting child-care facilities near the trolley stops as a means of serving commuters and promoting use of the line.