ZBA hearing this Wednesday on West Somerville Group Home

[crankyoldguy.livejournal.com]

As some of you are aware, a group home for Developmentally Disabled young adults is planned for 50-52 Whitman Street. The organization is 3L Place, headed by Deborah Flaschen. The Whitman Street site will eventually be the dormitory for the 3L Life College, located at a site TBD in the Davis Square area. Initially, all residential and college activities will apparently be at the Whitman Street site.

Wednesday's (4/2) ZBA meeting will address the request to increase the building's FAR (Floor to lot Area Ratio) from the current 1.0 to 1.25. Current zoning limits the FAR to 0.75. The purpose of the variance is to finish the basement and construct an additional three bedrooms there.

I have mixed feelings about this project. On the one hand, resources for young adults are really needed when they turn 22 and "age out" of the existing state funded support programs. On the other hand, locating on Whitman Street is far from desirable, given the traffic and parking congestion of the area. Also, converting a two family which in recent history housed five to six people to a group home housing twelve residents and a rotating staff of ten people per day (minimum) seems excessive, and will definitely change the tenor of the neighborhood.

The high number of proposed residents and the lack of any private common or recreation areas in the floorplan really has me wondering when housing for the disabled crosses the line and becomes warehousing.

What are some other peoples thoughts?

-Gary

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Used to live on Whitman years ago and it was hard to park then (we had no off street parking). that sounds like it will be very congested. Not sure if that is a great location for something that's more than a residence.

[gingicat]

Do you have a link to the full proposal? I need way more information in order to answer this question, and I suspect a lot of the questions I would ask are answered in it.

[ron_newman]

I'd guess that residents of this will have fewer cars than the same number of residents of a market-rate development. And it's a short walk to the Davis Square MBTA. Therefore, I don't think traffic issues are real.

[crankyoldguy.livejournal.com]

Not much more info in the plans submitted with the variance request:
Plans (http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2014-01-10%20Updated%20Plans%20%28POST%29.pdf)

And here is the PlanningStaff Report:
Report (http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/rnd/Whitman%2050-52%20-%20Staff%20Report%20%28POST%29.pdf)

The plans do note that they will be requesting a delay in enforcing the ADA accessibility requirements by 18 to 24 months.

[crankyoldguy.livejournal.com]

The residents are not expected to have cars at all. You might want to think about the people surrounding the residents, the staff, specialists, families, friends, etc. who will all need to visit the facility.

-Gary

[ron_newman]

Hmm, I would have thought such a facility would need ADA compliance from day 1, given whom it is for?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Here are the plans for what 3L is trying to do more generally. http://3lplace.org/
I don't see how they can do it without making it closer to fully accessible.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about staff and deliveries, primarily -- there's no way to have a loading entrance, for example. It's a narrow residential street.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

I don't think Somerville NIMBYism can get any better than this.

[crankyoldguy.livejournal.com]

Really? You might notice that in my original post I noted the value of such a program. Most of the people I've spoken with do NOT oppose the program at the proposed site, even while expressing legitimate concerns about it's size and scope. No one opposed the program when it was originally described as housing six residents. The site is quite literally in my back yard, and I do not oppose it.

My concerns are about the apparent desire to maximize the number of residents in the facility. (Too much of a good thing, if you will.) I think that when "realizing your vision" becomes more important than filling the legitimate needs of your prospective clients, there is a problem. The drive to increase the number of bedrooms in the house has necessitated compromises in the allocation of floor space. There are necessary components for a residential program (particularly one of this type) which are missing from the current design plans.

Residents have the option of either being part of a large group in a shared common area or isolating themselves in their bedroom. There is no "in-between" space, which seems rather odd for a program whose goal is to transition clients from isolated living to tolerance of and participation in groups.

There is also no private space for confidential conversation between staff and clients or among staff. In the case of an emergency at night, it will be extremely challenging for two staff members to evacuate twelve disabled adults spread across four floors.

-Gary

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Pay no attention to smoterh crying "NIMBY," no one else here does. S/he has cried "NIMBY" here so often it might just be a script.