Oak Park’s village board has granted final zoning approval for a large day care center to take over a vacant building near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Ridgeland Avenue.
KidSpace Academy will now move into the site at 505 N. Ridgeland, which has sat vacant for several years since it ceased operating as a dentist’s office. The startup daycare group’s application had been approved unanimously by Oak Park’s Zoning Board of Appeals earlier this month and was recommended for final approval by Oak Park’s village staff ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
The company needed special use permission from the zoning board and village board to open the daycare because the property sits in Oak Park’s Neighborhood Commercial Zoning District.
The village board greenlighted the development application unanimously.
The site had previously been targeted for residential development by Ambrosia Homes, which sought to convert the vacant property into a 36-unit luxury apartment building. While those developers had an option to buy the property, they ultimately abandoned the project before doing so amid neighbor pushback.
“I want to say that I’m super supportive of this use, but I also want to mention that I was supportive of the previous proposed use four years ago, which never got before the village board due to neighborhood pushback,” said Trustee Cory Wesley. “I think that was unfortunate, but this is a good use for the space.”
The new business will open as the village government targets increased development along Chicago Avenue. The village board approved designs for the $5 million Percy Julian Streetscape project for the street earlier this month.
“I think overall, we’ve talked about a lot of opportunity for development through all of Chicago Avenue as a whole,” said Village President Vicki Scaman. “This is a good use for this piece of property. Potentially there might have been a greater potential in the past there for greater density, which is definitely one of our goals. But I think there’s plenty of opportunity to continue to seek that on other lots in our village.”
The childcare center will operate an 8,000 square foot space with hopes to care for as many as 94 children at a time across different age groups with 12 on-site employees, according to the company’s zoning application. The business will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to the application.
Trustee Chibuike Enyia said that the center will fill a void in Oak Park for childcare centers that operate all day long.
“One of the opportunities that was missing for my family was finding a daycare that operates at the hours that this is offering,” Enyia said.
The company plans to make a variety of improvements and additions to the property before opening for business to limit neighborhood impacts and make the property safe for use as a childcare center, according to application documents.
“Proposed improvements include repaving and restriping the parking lot, adding a new driveway to limit traffic impacts on the adjacent alley, providing designated drop-off/pick-up areas both internal to the site and along Chicago Avenue (with the latter only being used during designated hours), erecting fencing to protect an outdoor play area, building an addition on the west side of the existing structure to facilitate the proposed use, and additional interior renovations,” according to village staff application documents. “The applicant indicates in their application that they have extensive experience operating similar facilities and have consulted with the relevant agencies to ensure the location is suitable for the proposed use.”
River Forest native Maya Garland — a former basketball standout at Bishop Fenwick and University of Alabama at Birmingham — owns the property and submitted the application for the daycare through her company Bold Development. She’s served as CEO of that Oak Park based development and contracting venture since 2021 after several years working as a project manager for Amazon, according to her LinkedIn.
