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Daycare OK'd in Elgin after lots of questions

The Elgin City Council gave a preliminary thumbs-up to the construction of a child day care center after lengthy questioning of the developer and objections from the owner of a nearby day care.

The Learning Experience would be located in a 10,000 square-foot building to be built at 1023 N. Randall Road, south of Carmina's Restaurant in the shopping center that includes Russo Power Equipment. A final council vote is expected later this month.

The one-story building would have an outdoor play space in the rear, away from Randall Road and enclosed by a six-foot privacy fence. Community Development Director Marc Mylott said parents will be required to park and walk into the building to drop off and pick up their kids.

Kim Hannell Hopkins, owner of The Learning Tree less than a half mile away on Royal Boulevard, said the location picked by The Learning Experience is inappropriate because it's along a busy road and near a liquor store.

"You perhaps owe it to them (the children) to make the right decision," she said.

Before approving the conditional use permit, city council members peppered representatives from JAS Development with questions about the proposed day care, part of a national franchise with centers in Naperville, Aurora, South Elgin and more.

Developer Jason Sfire said the Elgin location was picked because of its high visibility and research on family demographics.

Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley said he didn't recall any significant incidents related to the nearby restaurant or liquor store.

Jason Sfire's father, John, said The Learning Experience has about 250 locations nationally with 67 more in construction, and JAS Development will be building about a dozen sites in the Chicago area. Each center is an investment of about $4 million, he said.

JAS Development built a day care in Lake Zurich that opened a couple of months ago and broke ground for another in Oswego, he said. "We don't take on opportunities unless we feel very, very confident about them," he said.

His son, Jason Sfire, said the corporate entity will run the Elgin facility until a franchisee takes over. A location in Lake in the Hills closed recently because of lack of visibility and not following the franchise rules, he said.

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