Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed an emergency rule blocking a 200-bed shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children that would have been located in the Takoma neighborhood of Northwest D.C.

The rule will remain in effect for 120 days. It prohibits the city’s Child and Family Services Agency from licensing any facility with a capacity of more than 15 children, and it requires that any facility with a capacity of more than eight children get written approval from the agency’s director.

The news of the rule was first reported by The Washington Post. A final rule—which will require a period of public comment—will have to be adopted after December.

The facility was to be run by Dynamic Service Solutions, a Maryland-based contractor, which got a $20.5 million contract this month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to operate a shelter in D.C. for unaccompanied immigrant kids aged 12 to 17.

The department’s Administration for Children and Families said in a statement that it is legally required to hold unaccompanied children until a sponsor can be found, but critics—including city officials—lambasted the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.

“We treat the children in our care with dignity and respect, and deliver services to them in a compassionate and organized manner while we work expeditiously to unify each one with a suitable sponsor,” said ACF in a statement. “Unfortunately, uninformed individuals continue to perpetuate erroneous and irresponsible stories which only hinder our ability to run this program successfully and unify children with their parents, family member or other suitable sponsor.”

The shelter faced immediate obstacles in D.C., from licensing requirements to a likely public hearing to gain necessary zoning approvals. Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, who represents the area where the shelter would be located, also asked the building’s owner, D.C.-based Douglas Development, to reconsider the lease.

But city officials—both in the mayor’s office and on the D.C. Council—settled on trying to derail the shelter by prohibiting that large a presence of children in a single facility.

“We don’t currently have a cap on the number of children that are allowed in a congregate care setting, which opens the door to projects like this,” said Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who also contemplated possible legislation to block the shelter. “It’s not a best practice to put children in large group settings, we don’t do it anymore, we haven’t done it for years, and that’s one reason that everyone’s so alarmed about this project.”

Speaking on Monday, Bowser said her concerns with the shelter stemmed from opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies but also the city’s experience with housing large numbers of homeless families in the now-shuttered D.C. General shelter.

“We know when facilities are too big to support children. And I don’t have to remind anyone that we don’t know where Relisha Rudd is,” she said, referring to the eight-year-old child who went missing from D.C. General in 2014. “So we are not going to, after closing D.C. General, turn around and recreate an unsafe shelter for children without their parents.”

A similar proposal for a shelter in Northern Virginia has also drawn opposition from local officials.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.