Le Petit Elephant Nursery & Preschool will receive a $250,000 interest-free loan from the city of Napa to build required sidewalks, adding to over $1.5 million in prior public support, in an effort to help the long-delayed day care open at its new location later this year.

The Napa City Council authorized the loan on a 4-1 vote Tuesday, April 7, with Council member Mary Luros opposed. Most council members argued the loan is necessary to preserve Le Petit’s existing 128 childcare slots by ensuring the new location, which will provide up to 250 childcare slots and a minimum of 70 new ones, can open.

Le Petit is moving from its Laurel Street location, where its lease is set to expire in June, to a former church on Chapel Hill Drive.

The project faced unexpected costs and delays after the council approved it in May 2024, with many stemming from a lawsuit from Alta Heights neighbors who alleged potential violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and that impacts to traffic, air quality and safety hadn’t been adequately analyzed.

The lawsuit effectively blocked the expansion for nine months, until Le Petit owners agreed to phase in the full number of children, not queue vehicles onto public streets and to keep records of events held on the property.

But with the lawsuit settled, the owners still had to grapple with increased costs of about $500,000 to $650,000, according to a city of Napa staff report.

Napa County and the city of Napa in 2025 each approved $325,000 in loans to help push the project over the finish line, adding to $1.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding the county awarded the project as part of a broader childcare expansion effort back in June 2023. The Napa County Community Foundation also contributed a $50,000 grant, via Community Resources for Children, to support the project.

The sidewalk construction — for Montecito Boulevard, connecting to existing sidewalks by Alta Heights Elementary School — was previously required by the Napa City Council when it approved the day care project in May 2024.

Napa’s Community Resources and Development Director Molly Rattigan said Le Petit owners recently sought to delay the deadline of that construction for three years after they started operating, and she approved that delay. But the Alta Heights Neighborhood Coalition appealed that decision, and staff have worked to try and resolve the conflict since then.

Rattigan said the neighborhood coalition agreed to extend the completion date for the sidewalk construction to Sept. 1, 2027 — a date that assumes the day care will open by Aug. 1, 2026, and be in operation for about a year.

Le Petit owner Robert Pintacsi estimated the site is about 60% of the way to being ready for day care, with major utility, accessibility and safety projects now complete, including new fire sprinklers. Pintacsi said he’s now working to close up walls, install an iron fence around the building and add a dumpster enclosure, along with waiting for several inspections, before finishing off construction.

“We’re still hoping that construction is complete before spring is over, so we can start the move-in process,” Pintasci said.

Luros said at the meeting she wanted to delay the decision on awarding the loan for two weeks to get more information and make sure the city wouldn’t risk an illegal gift of public funds should the project fail.

That could happen, Luros said, if the value of the property the loan is secured against is lower than the collective value of the loans used to purchase and improve it, given that the city is in a lien position behind several other loans.

Rattigan said the total loans add up to about $6.3 million, though she noted the county’s loans are forgivable and will begin to reduce each year after operation. She added that the expected value of the property, according to a county appraisal, will be around $8.8 million when construction is finished — well above the $3.2 million it was purchased for.

Pintasci added that the loan funds for the sidewalks would be in an escrow account, and would only be provided once Le Petit demonstrates sidewalk construction expenses to the city.

“If we don’t complete construction and the sidewalk hasn’t begun, you could just have it back,” Pintasci said.

Most of the council members said project construction has come along far enough that they were confident the loan will work out, and they didn’t want to impose additional delays on the project.

“I would not want to be the agency that creates a delay that adds more cost and hurdles to this process,” said Council member Bernie Narvaez.