Guidelines for Child Care Centre / Student Care Centre / Kindergarten

A.

Child care centres, student care centres and kindergartens can be allowed in landed housing estates, except Good Class Bungalow Areas to meet the needs of the residents there. However, to protect the residential amenity, conversion of landed houses to such uses is only allowed on temporary permission (TP). The operators should ensure that noise and traffic disturbance to the neighbours is kept to the minimum. The TP will be cancelled if there are excessive disamenities and complaints on the use.

The guidelines are as follows:

New applications for childcare centres ¹

1. New childcare centres are permitted only in detached or a pair of semi-detached houses. This is to reduce the noise disturbance of childcare centres to the neighbours that share the same party wall as these childcare centres.
   
   
2. New childcare centres will only be considered for approval if there are no other approved childcare centre (including any kindergarten and student care centre) in a landed house within 350m radius distance from the subject premises. This is to minimise any adverse impact on the residential character of the landed housing estate and extraneous traffic flow in and out of the estate. Waiver of this requirement may be considered on a case-by-case basis if the proposal is supported by the Neighbourhood Committee (NC). In estates without a NC waiver may be considered on a case-by-case basis if the residents staying immediately next to and opposite the proposed new childcare centre support the proposal.
   
   
3. The childcare centre operator is to put in place traffic and noise control measures from the onset. Examples of traffic and noise control measures which some childcare centre operators have proposed in the past include the following:
   
   

(i)	provide school transport for the children so as to reduce the number of vehicles driving to school;
(ii)	station traffic wardens outside the childcare centre to ensure there is no blockage of neighbours’ driveway, no illegal parking or traffic congestion at any time;
(iii)	air-condition the rooms that are used for noisy activities (e.g. music and movement room);
(iv)	have specified outdoor playtime.

4. The owner of the property and the childcare centre operator are required to submit a joint letter of undertaking (LOU) (see sample) to ensure that adequate traffic and noise controls measures will be carried out and take immediate remedial actions if the centre receives adverse feedback from the neighbours. If the problems persist and are not resolved satisfactorily with the neighbours, the temporary permission (TP) of the childcare centre will not be renewed upon expiry or may be revoked.
   
   
5. The operating hours of childcare centre is restricted to 7am to 8pm on weekdays and 7am to 2pm on Saturday. The centre is to be closed at all other times.
   
   
6. Approval for childcare centre will be on two-year TP.
   
   
7. Based on LTA's guidelines, proposed childcare centres shall not be located along major roads and roads with speed limit of 70kph and above. You can also check the Restriction of Speed (Roads) Notification for speed limit on various type of roads according to the road names. To simplify the process, applicants are no longer required to submit LTA prior clearance letter to URA for proposed childcare centres within landed housing estates. Applicants are to consult LTA on car parking requirements separately.
   

Renewal of TP for existing childcare centres

8. Renewal of TP for existing childcare centres is subject to conditions (c) to (f) above.

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¹ “child care centre" means —

(a) a building that is licensed as a child care centre under section 4 of the Child Care Centres Act (Cap.37A);

(b) a building used as a centre at which 5 or more school-going children who are between the ages of 7 and 14 years are habitually received for the purposes of care and supervision before or after school hours; or

(c) a kindergarten registered as a kindergarten under section 23 of the Education Act (Cap.87).

Useful links
Applicants are also advised to check MCYS requirements on the setting up of a childcare centre. Please logon to MCYS website at http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg

B.

1. With effect from 18 Mar 2005, URA has introduced new guidelines to make it easier for operators to set up childcare centres ¹ in premises like work places, commercial, community and institutional buildings.
   
   
2. The new guidelines will significantly simplify the approval process. URA will authorise childcare centre use in selected types of developments without the need to submit development applications provided the conditions of the authorisation are satisfied.
   
   
3. For other development types, childcare centre use proposals can be lodged under the Plan Lodgment Scheme. The Plan Lodgment Scheme was introduced in August 2001 as an instant approval process for change of use proposals. Under the scheme, an applicant can lodge a proposal for change of use with URA and currently pay a reduced fee of $100 (as compared to $300 for a normal change-of-use application, both figures exclusive of GST). The applicant would then obtain instant authorisation as long as the proposal meets the lodgment criteria.
   
   
4. Both simplified approval processes will save time and cost for building owners and prospective childcare operators.
   
   
5. The revised approval process for change of use to childcare centres is shown in Appendix 1.
   
   

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¹ “child care centre" means —

(a) a building that is licensed as a child care centre under section 4 of the Child Care Centres Act (Cap.37A);

(b) a building used as a centre at which 5 or more school-going children who are between the ages of 7 and 14 years are habitually received for the purposes of care and supervision before or after school hours; or

(c) a kindergarten registered as a kindergarten under section 23 of the Education Act (Cap.87).

Conditions for Authorisation of Childcare Centres

6. Proposals for childcare centres which can be authorised in the premises stated in Appendix 1 are subject to the following conditions:
   

   
   

   a	the proposal does not involve any increase in the Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the development;
   b	necessary approvals have been obtained from the relevant government agencies such as MCYS (in the case of childcare centres) or MOE (in the case of kindergartens) and, FSSD and LTA. If the building is owned by the State, approval from SLA and the government agencies managing the building (e.g. HDB for HDB premises, PA for community centre, JTC for factory, warehouse and business park) is required prior to any change of uses; and
   c	the GFA of the childcare centre is less than 50% of the total GFA of the development. This condition, however, is not applicable for building types under items 6 and 7 in Appendix 1.

Conditions for Plan Lodgment

7. Change of use proposals for childcare centres that can qualify under the lodgment scheme in Appendix 1 are subject to compliance with the maximum GFA control for specific type of uses within the building and the lodgment conditions. Please see Appendix 2 for the detailed conditions for lodgment.
   
   
8. For all other types of buildings not listed in Appendix 1 and where the childcare centre proposals do not satisfy the conditions for authorisation or plan lodgment, the new guidelines for authorisation and plan lodgment of childcare centres are not applicable. An applicant for childcare centre in these premises is required to make a normal change of use application to URA and obtain a planning permission before changing the use of the premises to childcare centres. Also, the new guidelines are not applicable to conserved buildings located within the Historic Conservation Areas and premises designated for activity generating uses in the prevailing Master Plan.
   
   

Submission Matrix

9. A submission matrix in Appendix 3 summaries the categories of buildings for which change of use proposals to child care centre can be authorised or can be lodged (subject to the conditions of authorisation or plan lodgement) or for which application for change of use to childcare care centre must be submitted to URA for approval. It serves as a reference guide for applicants wanting to set up childcare centres in different types of buildings.