Huntington Beach / Coastal Orange County
Beach Boulevard is where the verified operators line up: La Petite Academy (19860), Kiddie Academy (19342) and Sylvan Learning (16052, Suite 105) all have Beach Boulevard addresses. The southeast part of the city is the second pocket, with Childtime on Yorktown Avenue, My First Montessori on Brookhurst Street and The Tutoring Center on Adams Avenue. For a licensed child care center, focus on buildings where a fenced outdoor play yard can be carved out, since the state requires 75 sq ft of outdoor space per child. Tutoring and enrichment users have more choices: if Planning classifies the business as Personal Enrichment Services, space of 5,000 sq ft or less in the CO and CG districts is permitted without a use permit.
Population
195,240
Median HHI
$120,919
Median age
44
Homeownership
55.4%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Beach Boulevard · Pacific Coast Highway · Main Street · Edinger Avenue · Adams Avenue · Warner Avenue
Specific shopping centers in Huntington Beach that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
Beach Boulevard / Edinger Avenue
Anchors / key tenants: big-box, automotive, and value-tier retail corridor
Heavy traffic-count corridor with big-box, value, automotive, and casual restaurant pattern. Daily-needs and service-retail leasing here looks very different than Pacific City or Main Street.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Huntington Beach rents. These are publicly visible daycare and education space businesses currently trading in the market.
La Petite Academy
19860 Beach Boulevard, Huntington Beach, CA 92647
State-licensed day care center, capacity 108, ages 2 to 5, first licensed in 1994 (CDSS facility 304270089). On the Beach Boulevard corridor.
Kiddie Academy of Huntington Beach
19342 Beach Boulevard, Huntington Beach, CA 92648
State-licensed day care center, capacity 124 preschool-age children, first licensed in 2015 (CDSS facility 304370987). The operator's page lists programs from 6 weeks through age 12. Also on Beach Boulevard.
My First Montessori
19118 Brookhurst Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
State-licensed day care center, capacity 231 including a toddler option, first licensed in 2009 (CDSS facility 304370501). The largest licensed capacity of the centers we checked in the city.
Childtime Children's Center
9861 Yorktown Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
State-licensed day care center, capacity 75, ages 2 through 6, first licensed in 1991 (CDSS facility 300611709).
Sylvan Learning of Huntington Beach
16052 Beach Boulevard, Suite 105, Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Tutoring center in a suite on Beach Boulevard, per Sylvan's own location page. Tutoring is not a CDSS-licensed use, so there is no licensed capacity.
The Tutoring Center, Huntington Beach
10128 Adams Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
K-12 tutoring franchise on the Adams Avenue corridor, per the operator's own location page.
01
Use permit: Zoning Code Section 211.04 lists Day Care, General (13 or more children, including preschools) as L-3 in the CO and CG districts and not permitted in CV. Under Section 211.05, L-3 means a conditional use permit from the Zoning Administrator for spaces of 2,500 sq ft or less and from the Planning Commission above 2,500 sq ft. Every licensed center we checked in the city has a capacity of 75 or more, which at 35 sq ft per child is already past 2,500 sq ft, so plan for a Planning Commission hearing in the lease timeline.
02
Tutoring and enrichment: Personal Enrichment Services (the code's category for instruction such as music, dance, martial arts and trade or business schools) is L-10 in CO and CG: permitted at 5,000 sq ft or less, Administrative Permit above 5,000 sq ft, and not allowed in CV. Schools with a curriculum comparable to public schools need a Planning Commission conditional use permit.
03
Parking: Section 231.04 requires 1 space per staff member plus 1 per classroom for Day care, general. Personal enrichment is 1 per 35 sq ft of instruction area, or 1 per 200 sq ft if students per classroom do not exceed the spaces allocated to the suite and instruction area is no more than 75% of the floor area. Ask the landlord for the center's parking count before you size classrooms.
04
Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue sites: the City adopted the Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan (effective April 16, 2010, amended 2015). Ask Planning whether your address is inside the plan area and which use table applies before relying on the Chapter 211 rules above.
05
State licensing sets the floor plan: 35 sq ft of indoor activity space per child (22 CCR 101238.3, not counting bathrooms, halls, offices, kitchens or storage), 75 sq ft of fenced outdoor space per child with a fence at least four feet high (22 CCR 101238.2), and one toilet and one sink per 15 children (22 CCR 101239). A 100-child center needs about 3,500 sq ft of activity rooms and 7,500 sq ft of yard.
06
Fire clearance: 22 CCR 101171 requires every child care center to obtain and keep a fire clearance. Get the Huntington Beach Fire Department's read on exiting and sprinklers for the specific suite before lease contingencies expire.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.