Downers Grove council rejects zoning change to increase children allowed at home day centers

Downers Grove commissioners have rejected a proposal to allow more children at home day care centers.

The board last week unanimously voted against a zoning text amendment to increase the number of children allowed at home day care centers from eight to 12.

The proposal was brought by Laurance Lilja, who has operated a home day care in multiple houses in Downers Grove and adjacent unincorporated areas.

“Please keep in mind that I’ve been doing this for 26 years at seven residences, and this is the first complaint we’ve had,” Lilja said.

The complaint happened in June 2025 when neighbors informed the village that Lilja was caring for 16 children at her house on Oxford Street.

In-home day care providers can care for up to eight children, not including their own, according to village ordinance.

The village asked Lilja to comply with the ordinance by September, but it agreed to stay enforcement if she applied for changes to the ordinance overseeing home day care.

Lilja did that. She asked the village to increase the number of children allowed at a home day care center to 12.

The planning and zoning commission recommended approval of the proposal in November.

Lilja said there are only three other home day care centers in the village. She said they are critical to providing affordable day care.

Courtney Rodgers, a second-grade teacher in Downers Grove, spoke in support of increasing the number of children allowed at home day care centers.

She said it was a “modest, reasonable adjustment” that would “help meet a critical need for working families.”

Council members said a text amendment was not the appropriate way to make the change.

“We thought this change was big enough to warrant a different process,” Mayor Bob Barnett said.

Commissioner Martin Tully agreed.

“There is a community process we believe very strongly in before making major changes that affect the entire community,” Tully said. “I’m totally sympathetic with the need for affordable child care.”

Barnett closed the discussion, saying the village understands the importance of home day care centers and already allows them.

“I am not accepting the idea that Downers Grove is saying to the business community (that) we don’t appreciate diversity, that we don’t appreciate accessibility or affordability because we’re asking one current day care operator to operate within the rules we’ve had for a long, long time,” Barnett said. “That’s not a fair characterization. It’s just not.”