San Diego’s City Council voted 6-0 on Oct. 26 to begin a process to allow new child care centers in the MCAS Miramar airport transition zone. The area includes University City, Mira Mesa, Clairemont, Kearny Mesa and parts of Sorrento Valley, where commercial and office development sits within the flight corridor.
The council had already voted unanimously in May 2026 to allow new child care centers in the MCAS Miramar transition zone, folding the change into a broader package of 134 zoning and regulation changes approved May 11, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. But in July, the county's Airport Land Use Commission rejected that zoning change, citing safety concerns tied to the area's status as a flight corridor.
The county panel's reasoning centered on evacuation risk. Per the Union-Tribune's reporting, the airport land use compatibility plan states that large groups of children are more vulnerable during aviation emergencies because they can't evacuate as smoothly and swiftly as adults, and the plan raises similar concerns about schools, prisons and facilities for elderly people.
What the City's Override Would and Wouldn't Do
What the City's Override Would and Wouldn't Do The proposed override would not exempt the businesses from existing noise rules in the transition zone. Existing child care centers already operating in the transition zone could continue operating and even expand, Councilmember Joe LaCava said.
Councilmember Kent Lee, who represents much of the affected area, pointed out that the transition zone extends into areas with significant existing commercial and office development, not just open land near runways.
City documents describe the specifics of what's being requested. According to the City of San Diego's agenda description, the amendment would allow child care centers as a limited use with a maximum 0.42 floor area ratio within the transition zone of the MCAS Miramar Airport Influence Area.
A Child Care Desert Near the County's Top Job Center
The push comes amid child care shortages in San Diego County.
Sorrento Valley and Mira Mesa are among the areas affected. Lee argued that child care is extremely expensive, suggesting it ranks as the No. 2 expense behind housing costs for many families.
Data from the YMCA Childcare Resource Service underscores the scale of the shortage: 48% of county families with children under 5 and working parents have no available licensed child care option. The same dashboard found that most San Diego County ZIP codes have fewer than three licensed infant-care slots for every 10 infants, and that full-time licensed center rates cover only 52% of the estimated true cost of high-quality infant care and 66% for preschool-age children.
Earlier Child Care Efforts
San Diego pursued efforts to create child-care facilities in 2022.
The city has also clashed with the Airport Land Use Commission on other fronts. San Diego has previously overruled the commission to allow taller buildings than recommended in Little Italy, Bankers Hill and other neighborhoods in the transition zone around San Diego International Airport. In March 2020, the council unanimously overruled the commission to allow a six-story apartment building in Bankers Hill, part of a pattern in which the council has overruled the commission five times since 2003, including in 2016 to allow the Born & Raised restaurant in Little Italy to be built.
What the records show about past overrides and child care supply
According to the City of San Diego City Clerk, most ordinances require an introductory hearing and a second public hearing, generally two weeks later; the Clerk’s page does not establish the schedule for this proposal. The earlier airport-zone overrides involved building proposals, so they offer procedural precedent but are not direct comparisons to a child-care proposal assessed for evacuation risk. The YMCA of San Diego County Childcare Resource Service’s supply map counted 881 licensed child-care centers, 3,286 licensed family child-care homes and 452 license-exempt child-care centers countywide as of August 2023. Those countywide totals do not show how many providers fall within the Miramar transition zone or employment districts. The YMCA defines licensed capacity as the legal maximum number of children a provider may care for at one time, distinct from the number the provider wants to serve. The July 2025 dashboard cited above separately found that most county ZIP codes had fewer than three licensed infant-care slots for every 10 infants; these dated figures are snapshots, not a measure of change over time.
What Happens Next
The child care item was on the City Council's October 26 agenda.
