Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:16 and sunset is 8:32 for 15 hours 16 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning crescent with 38.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1973, Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.
On Monday evening, Whitewater’s Planning and Architectural Commission recommended amending Whitewater’s zoning ordinances to allow for family child care centers as a conditional use within enumerated residential districts. See Planning Commission Agenda Packet, Items 5 and 6, (Jun. 8, 2026). The amendments would incorporate existing state standards for these family-based centers. The Whitewater Common Council should adopt the Planning Commission’s recommendations and amend the city’s zoning ordinances as proposed.
While this libertarian blogger does not have, and will not have, particular suggestions1 about the operation childcare in the city, the easing of zoning restrictions for family-based care has long been a libertarian proposal to expand childcare opportunities. See generally Chelsea Follett, Childcare and Child Raising, Cato Inst. (Apr. 16, 2026). Regarding zoning, Follet proposes:
Make home-based childcare legal “by right” and override exclusionary zoning. Home day cares are among the fastest ways to expand childcare capacity because they have lower fixed costs than large centers. Zoning and permitting hurdles choke off this supply channel. Allowing home-based childcare by default increases entry, expands neighborhood options, and broadens quality-price bundles for parents.
Whitewater’s Planning Commission recommended these changes as a conditional use. That’s a step in the right direction, but only if planning approval of conditional use permits isn’t a slow process. It should not be — pondering how many conditions can dance on the head of a pin only impedes opportunities (and discourages businesses of all kinds from choosing Whitewater).
Legal by right would have been an optimal proposal; these recommended changes to the city’s ordinances are, nonetheless, a confident step toward more opportunities for childcare. The Whitewater Common Council would be sensible to adopt Planning’s recommendations.
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- One doesn’t have to be a watchmaker to grasp that it’s hard to make a watch. A single part wrongly placed confounds the device. ↩︎
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, Outcome-Driven Argumentation, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Rare underwater video shows a Great White Shark in the Mediterranean: