DA Smith, neighbors opposed to personal care home

District 6 Commissioner Ben Hendrix made the motion to deny the application. He said he felt it would impede the normal development of the subdivision, would take away from the character of the neighborhood and would limit access of emergency vehicles to other houses on the street.

The motion passed 3-2, with commissioners Eva Elder and Steve Worley voting against the denial. Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn missed the meeting due to a family member’s illness.

Though Smith’s wife and other neighbors have offices inside their houses in the Springs of Chateau subdivision, Smith said those business activities are not detectable by “sight, sound or smell” from outside the homes, as the community’s covenants state.

But Smith said Maria Serban’s plan to open a personal care home for up to six elderly residents in her 5,100-square-foot home at 1383 Larose Drive would violate the covenants and also would affect the continued development of the upscale subdivision north of Old Hog Mountain Road. Only 14 of the 74 lots in the subdivision have been developed in the past five years.

Smith’s primary argument was about the impact the home business would have on parking and the flow of traffic on his cul-de-sac. Adding six more people to his neighbor’s house would increase that social activity seven-fold, he claimed.

“There’s seven times the amount of birthdays. Every resident of this house is going to have extended family that is going to get together when that family has special days, when that family has special holidays. What is Mother’s Day going to be like on my street when all these people want to visit their relatives at the same time? It increases seven fold the impact that that house is going to have on this subdivision.”

For the full story, see the Feb. 23 issue of the Barrow Journal.