Battle drags on over day care center planned for Napa’s Alta Heights area (2025)

A lengthy standoff is continuing between a day-care center owner trying to open a new branch for up to 250 children— with the city of Napa’s support— and a group of neighborhood opponents she says has continued to stand in her way amid a months-long court battle.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for an Alta Heights neighborhood group says its members are working toward a solution that can satisfy them and the day-care owner— but that neighbors will stand firm against any project they believe will increase traffic congestion and reduce safety, especially in a major emergency such as a wildfire.

In the nearly seven months since the Napa City Council cleared Milli Pintacsi, owner of Le Petit Elephant Nursery and Preschool on Laurel Street, to open a child care center within a disused church building, conflict has continued between her and the Alta Heights Neighborhood Coalition, a group that sued to overturn the city’s approval.

Pintacsi’s child care center is slated to open in late 2025 and serve some 250 children inside the former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 15 Chapel Hill Drive. The facility would be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, and also be available as a weekend community space.

Both Pintacsi and a lawyer for the coalition confirmed this week to the Napa Valley Register that the two sides have discussed conditions the owner of Le Petit Elephant might agree to that would lead the group to drop its lawsuit against the city’s approval, which opponents filed in June in Napa County Superior Court. Plaintiffs argued the plan violates the California Environmental Quality Act and clashes the with city’s own general plan and zoning laws.

However, Pintacsi alleged this week that foes of her project are not negotiating in good faith and in the process are depriving families of much-need child care.

“Unfortunately, each time I agree to the opponents’ demands, new demands arise, so it is a moving target and very frustrating,” Pintacsi said in an email to the Register. “The small group of neighbors suing to stop our childcare center from opening in their neighborhood do not seem to be negotiating in good faith. They have put forward demands and restrictions that are an unprecedented over-reach from private citizens.

“This is a level of selfishness that the Napa community has never encountered – the personal preferences of the few fighting against the desperate needs of the many,” she said. “… Children are a normal part of a neighborhood, and it’s been shameful to see anyone fighting so hard to keep children out of their neighborhood.”

Kevin Block, a Napa lawyer representing the Alta Heights coalition, denied any attempts by residents to obstruct a day care center opening near their homes, and said the group is in negotiations with Pintacsi’s attorney.

“The coalition would like to settle their lawsuit and allow her to open,” Block said Thursday. “We have been working to do that persistently, and we have not done an about-face or moved the goalposts. We have tried to address the impacts on the neighborhood.”

A settlement offer the Alta Heights group sent to Pintacsi had not been answered as of Thursday, according to Block.

“We sent them a detailed settlement proposal on Dec. 3, and I have not heard anything back,” he said. “I will reach out to her attorney, but that’s not the conduct of someone who is eager to get the case settled.”

Block gave few details of the offer, saying the negotiations are confidential. However, he suggested that Alta Heights homeowners could eventually be persuaded to accept Le Petit Elephant’s goal of serving up to 250 children— if it can show that it avoids disrupting daily life for others.

“We do think 250 children is too large,” Block said in a telephone interview. “But if Milli can demonstrate that she can operate it without negatively impacting the neighborhood, our offer would let her ramp up to that number. We’re hoping it can be done; we’re just asking her to show it.”

What remained unclear this week was what kinds of non-day care activities might be allowed or restricted based on negotiations between Pintacsi and the Alta Heights group. In her email this week, Pintacsi described plans for the Chapel Hill Drive facility to host such youth activities as basketball practices, Scout meetings, and dance and theater rehearsals.

Various Alta Heights residents spoke out against Pintacsi’s planned day care as she brought the project to the city’s Planning Commission and City Council earlier this year. At those meetings, speakers called the definition of “accessory” uses on weekends and outside regular hours too rubbery and open to abuse, and warned that increased traffic could worsen the dangers of an evacuation during a major fire.

Council members on May 21 rejected an appeal against the plan, which included the use of a community playroom and gymnasium at the old LDS church. The Alta Heights coalition sued Napa a month later, seeking to void the city’s approval on environmental and zoning grounds and to get a restraining order blocking Pintacsi from starting work on converting the church building.

Tensions increased further in mid-July when a mysterious website appeared that bore the Alta Heights Neighborhood Coalition name— but seemingly created to attack and shame what its creator decried as the group’s NIMBYism and obstinate resistance to expanding child care options in Napa.

The site initially bore the banner “NOT IN MY BACKYARD” over a stock photo of a sour-faced woman, and also displayed phone numbers, home addresses and emails for four members of the coalition.

(The site was taken down and replaced a week later by another site, which removed the addresses but invited viewers to donate toward Le Petit Elephant’s legal costs. Pintacsi denied creating the web page but said she knew its author, whom she declined to identify.)

Opponents of the child-care project were “justifiably concerned about their privacy and safety, as well as the privacy and safety of their family members," coalition member Thai Pham said after the website’s publication. However, Pham added that the coalition, which he said numbered about 100 people, remained willing to discuss a settlement with Pintacsi and city officials.

On Wednesday, Councilmember Liz Alessio maintained that the city has placed enough guardrails in the day care project to prevent it becoming a burden to its neighbors.

City terms include a ban on hosting weddings, adults-only parties and sports tournaments. In addition, the site can host only one event per year for no more than 150 guests, and will be granted only one annual temporary state permit for alcohol sales.

Any worries that the former church building could become a teeming event center are overblown, Alessio said.

“This place is not designed for big events,” she said. “Copia is an event center. We have hotels and other locations in Napa County to host events. This building was built in 1950s; it’s not an event center; it’s a church.”

In any case, Alessio added, the need for more child care alternatives is too great for Napa to ignore.

“What is a community without children? We’re already seeing families getting pushed out of this town because of the cost of housing, and another big (problem) for families is access to and the cost of child care,” said Alessio, a former community outreach officer at Queen of the Valley Medical Center.

“With my public health background, I can tell you that age 0-5 education sets success for kids from elementary to high school and into college. This is so important for our families to have this to go to, and into the next generation.”