Over neighborhood objections, Planners OK Alzheimer’s facility

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By MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star

Neighbors opposed to a proposed Alzheimer’s care facility near 27th and Old Cheney are vowing to take their fight to the Lincoln City Council after the city-county Planning Commission approved the plan Wednesday.

Commissioners voted 8-0 to grant a special permit to allow Agemark Corp. to build a 19,000-square-foot assisted-living center that would house up to 33 Alzheimer’s patients on a 1.8-acre strip of land at about 25th and Old Cheney.

Since Agemark sought a special permit and not a zoning change, that would have been the final word on the issue, but several neighbors said they will appeal the decision to the City Council.

Neighbors who testified Wednesday expressed concerns about increased traffic and noise  from deliveries and emergency vehicles, as well as concerns the center does not belong on land surrounded by single-family homes.

William Gewain, who has lived in the area for 17 years, said he has nothing against an elder care facility.

Gewain said his own mother suffers from dementia and lives at Savannah Pines at 40th and Pine Lake Road.

“But this is just not the right location,” he said.

Mark Hunzeker, an attorney representing Agemark, disputed that.

“We are required to be in a residential zoning district, that’s why we are here,” he said.

City ordinance requires nursing homes and assisted living facilities to locate in residential areas.

Though some neighbors argued the center would be like a hotel with lots of visitors and deliveries, an Agemark official said that’s not the case.

Martin Hug, the company’s chief operating officer, said similar facilities the company operates in Grand Island and Davenport, Iowa, average only six visitors a day, 3-5 deliveries a week and one ambulance call a month.

While the facility would employ 25-30 full- and part-time workers, no more than nine would be on duty at once.

“We are a business, we understand that,” Hug said. “But first and foremost we are a home.”

Agemark has a deal to buy the land from Windstream Corp. for $400,000. Hug said once Agemark has the needed approvals, construction would take about a year.

The land has been vacant for more than 30 years and some neighbors said they have grown used to that — and would like to see it stay that way.

“It has become a neighborhood park,” said Vicki Shank.

Shank said that attracted her and her husband to the area when they bought their home in 1991.

But if the land isn’t going to stay vacant, homes would be more appropriate, she said.

Several Planning Commissioners seemed sympathetic to the neighbors’ concerns but, in the end, decided there was no logical reason to deny a special permit for the project since it meets all the conditions of the permit.

“It’s hard to turn down a use that is properly applying” under the zoning code, said Commission Chairman Jon Carlson.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.