Planners recommend approval of adult home
Posted on Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 1:19 pm
MILFORD – The Caroline County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a request from a Georgia woman to operate a house in Woodford as an adult home that will provide assisted living services.
The commission voted 4-0 to forward the request to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation that a special exception permit be approved.
The house, owned by Amanda Brathwaite of Mabelton Ga., is located at 7209 Macedonia Road and sits on about one acre. It is located in an area designated agricultural preservation.
In briefing the commission on the request, which the panel considered at its November meeting, too, planning technician Lisa Zech reminded the commissioners that vehicle access and parking were issues that were raised at the earlier meeting. The driveway of the home is adequate for emergency vehicles, and parking is adequate for the number of people that would be permitted, she said. In addition, an adjacent church has a parking lot, she noted.
The adult home will have to comply with various state health and social services regulations, noted Zech.
She recommended that the requirements of state permits be included in the county’s permit, that Brathwaite be required to furnish copies of the state permits to the county planning department, and that the permit be subject to renewal by the supervisors after two years. In addition, any increase in the number of people living in the home – above the number initially licensed by the state Department of Social Services – would require an amendment to the county’s permit.
Braithwaite plans to operate the home for people who are in the early stages of treatment for cancer, she told the commission at its November meeting.
In other action at its Dec. 14 meeting, the commission voted 4-0 to recommend the supervisors issue a special exception permit to the county School Board for the renovation and expansion project at Bowling Green Primary School.
The permit is required in order to modify setback requirements for the building project. The addition will encroach slightly into the setback required from the adjacent Community Services Center building to the east and also Baltimore Road in the front of the school.
The modification will allow a 122-foot front yard where 150 feet is required and a 33-foot side yard where 50 feet is required.
The request related to the school project prompted Commissioner Milton Bush to wonder aloud why school officials had settled on renovating and expanding Bowling Green Primary School instead of Bowling Green Elementary School. The expanded school will have nearly twice as many students, he noted, generating more bus traffic. Bush questioned the wisdom behind the decision given that the neighboring Community Services Center building already draws considerable traffic and people to the department of social services, other county offices, library, gymnasium, and for various meetings.
Assistant superintendent Eric Cunningham and Jesse Miller, an engineer for OWPR, the school system’s architectural consulting firm for the project, noted that school officials and consultants performed a feasibility study to determine the best option, a study that looked at other existing schools as well as new sites. Renovating and expanding Bowling Green Primary School was the most cost effective option, they said. In addition, the existing roads are adequate for the anticipated increase in bus traffic and visits by parents, they said.
