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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPacket for BZA 01-23-23Letter to Introduce our Project Dear Mr. Shestak, My name is Jennifer Piccione and I am submitting this to you as part of our application for a Special Exception permit for an 8-person group home for elderly residents. I have purchased a home located at 44 Horseshoe Ln, Carmel, Indiana, 46033. Upon obtaining the appropriate building permit, we will renovate only the interior of the home from 5 bedrooms to 8 bedrooms. Certain features will be added to the interior of the home to provide support for residents such as handicap accessible bathrooms, smooth flooring, a stair lift, and features to make living independently comfortable. No renovations to the exterior of the home will be made. We will operate as Housing with Services Established. Our goal is to blend seamlessly into the neighborhood and demonstrate our desire to be an exemplary neighbor. Our promise is that our home will continue to be a beautiful, meticulously well-kept, quiet, warm and welcoming part of the community. Our mission is to provide a beautiful home for 8 elderly residents that seek to live in an upscale, residential community, together with other like-minded and situated residents to share daily life activities, meals and life experiences. The purpose of this home is to provide an alternative living arrangement to large nursing facilities, impersonal commercial care facilities, and to allow our elderly citizens the opportunity to stay in a residential community, in a residential home, close to family and friends and to which they are accustomed. Our residents will live in the home under a Residency Contract pursuant to which, for a fee, we will provide meals, personal care services, laundry and housekeeping, assistance with access to health and social services, and private or semi/private room which includes a bed, linens, closet and dresser. We will function as a traditional family whose members agree and desire to jointly occupy the home together. Our residents will share all expenses, spaces, meals, and life experiences. We will not administer medical care or administer medications to the residents. We will not admit residents in need of memory care. Staff will consist of one Administrator who will oversee the operation of the house. They will be responsible for maintaining the highest level of care of the residents as well as a highest level of care of the home (both inside and out). The staff shall consist of two caretakers during the day and one awake caretaker in the evening. Staff do not live in the home. Residents will not have their own vehicles. Our caretakers will park their vehicles in the garage or driveway. Occasionally, we will have individuals come to the home to provide fun activities in the home such as yoga, music therapy, animal therapy and other fun activities that the residents very much enjoy. Statement of Special Exception Request Group Homes in residential zoning districts are required to gain Special Exception approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals. The dwelling located at 44 Horseshoe Ln, Carmel, is in Zone R-1 and Group homes are permitted with a Special Exception Permit. We are requesting that the City grant us a reasonable accommodation to operate an 8 person group home for the elderly pursuant to sections 5.72 and 9.08 of the Unified Development Ordinance for the term of 20 years. We request this reasonable accommodation so that we may provide equal access to a residential, home- environment within a residential neighborhood, to residents that require assistance with daily life activities. Statement of Support With nearly 10,000 Americans turning 65 every single day, our country is rapidly aging. Around 70% of baby boomers will require some form of long-term care services after age 65. People want to stay in their homes or at least the same community, but barely 3.5% of homes are appropriately retrofitted in a manner that supports that desire. The alternative is an impersonal institutional setting or nursing. We do not think that it is right that at a certain time in our lives when we can no longer care for ourselves and our home without some assistance, that we should have to relocate to an unfamiliar area, away from family and friends, and live in an impersonal facility or institutional setting. The demand for a residential assisted living setting is great and we believe that we owe our most valued and long-standing citizens the opportunity to stay within their own communities and neighborhoods to enjoy life’s experiences together with their friends and family. We believe it is their right to choose where they want to live and to remain in a residential home. We request this reasonable accommodation so that we may provide access to a residential, home, within a residential neighborhood, to residents that require assistance with daily life activities, equal to those that do not require assistance with daily life activities. Our request does not include any factors that lie outside of what is allowed with a Special Exception Permit. There are no other group homes located within a block (or the entire community of Woodland Springs) where the proposed home is located that would create a “cluster” of group homes. We are requesting a reasonable accommodation to allow up to 8 unrelated persons to live at the home. Prior to us purchasing the home, 8 individuals, some related and some unrelated, occupied the same home without incident. Many large families of similar sizes occupy many homes in Carmel, Indiana. No professional support staff will reside at the home. Two caretakers will be present during the daytime hours to assist residents with daily activities as described above. In the evening, we will have one awake caretaker at the residence present to do laundry, cleaning and provide assistance for any resident needs. No residents will have vehicles. Two caretakers will have vehicles and will park their cars in the garage and/or driveway, not unlike any other family with two or more vehicles. The vehicles will not be marked as they will be personal cars. Laundry will be done in-house. Grocery shopping will be done by a caretaker and/or Instacart on occasion. No exterior renovations will be made to the home to enlarge or expand the house. The design, materials and landscaping will remain the same and we will continuously maintain the home both inside and out to fit with character and design of the neighborhood. We are not requesting any signage for the exterior of the home to indicate that it is a group home. No financial or administrative burden would be imposed on the City by granting this special accommodation. The home will function as a one single housekeeping unit, like a traditional family unit, just like hundreds of other single-family homes with multiple family members, and will remain the same structure in design, traffic patterns and parking as it has previously existed. Site and Building Plans for 44 Horseshoe Ln, Carmel No exterior renovations will be made. No signage will be needed. Home, landscaping, lighting, parking, exterior of home, trash and grading will all remain as is. No modifications. Interior floor plan will remain the same with the exception of enlarging bathroom entryways to allow for a wheelchair and subdividing one large bedroom and one sitting area to create two additional bedrooms. No structural modifications needed. Screened porch will be insulated as well. Parking Plan The existing home has a long driveway and a two-car garage. Two care takers will be present during the daytime. Care takers will park their vehicles in the garage and/or the driveway. One caretaker will be present at night. Caretaker will park in the garage. Visitors to residents will park in the driveway or if necessary, park in permitted areas of the street on occasional visits. Overnight guests are not allowed so no overnight parking is necessary No additional or excess parking is needed or requested beyond that of what is already permitted in the neighborhood for a single-family home.