Day-Care Providers Battle Neighbors in Loudoun

On May 2, however, the association's board of directors voted 3 to 0 to enforce covenants that forbid residents from operating home offices, including day-care centers, unless they meet certain conditions. The vote puts in jeopardy at least 12 day-care centers as the association deliberates a date for their closure. A final decision is expected next month.

Board president Eric Florence said the association has followed its rules and procedures and consulted lawyers on the matter. Board meeting minutes have been made public, he said, and two town hall-style meetings have been held.

Under the covenants, home offices may be allowed if they do not generate traffic, defined as a "significant number of visits . . . by clients, customers or other persons related to the business." (Telecommuters are thereby exempt.)

But traffic, it turns out, is in the eye of the beholder.

"Personally, across the street from me, I have seen nine cars in the morning and nine cars in the evening. I can tell you they're not from Lansdowne," said Jon Fallick, who lives across the street from the El-Sharkawis.

Fallick filed a complaint late last year that set in motion the board's actions. He also co-authored an open letter to the neighborhood that detailed the case against the day-care centers, arguing that they will proliferate if left unchecked and that they will drive down property values.

Day-care providers counter that a few children arriving and leaving over a staggered period of a couple of hours in the morning and evening hardly amounts to a disruption. They circulated a petition in late December in an attempt to save their operations, gathering 170 signatures of support.

They also said they discern an underlying snobbery among their critics. If the day-care providers were accountants or architects, neighbors might be more permissive, Heba El-Sharkawi said. "It's not a classy business."

Washingtonpost.com staff writer Tammi Marcoullier contributed to this report.