Oppose the Senior Housing Zoning Amendment

Oppose the Senior Housing Zoning Amendment

Dear Alderman,

I strongly oppose the proposed Senior Housing Zoning Amendment. It is seriously flawed and crafted to serve the interests of for-profit developers, placing profit motives ahead of the interest of the larger community and even the seniors it purportedly helps. The ordinance exploits a loophole of very generous height limits in the existing zoning code to allow an additional floor, which means the projects will loom over surrounding buildings. It also requires very little parking for any of these projects. We all know that many seniors are continuing to drive well into their later years. A parking shortage will not only harm seniors but will also spill over into surrounding neighborhoods. Allowing more residences per lot compounds congestion problems, lowering the quality of life for all. Most impacted are the seniors who would be forced into these units. While the proposal does not discuss subsidies, or their funding, increasing subsidies to projects will likely come at the cost of reduced funding to assist keep seniors in their homes. This is one of the many areas that the amendment and the report justifying it fail to understand about the needs of seniors or the dynamics behind any decline in population that may be occurring.

Many community groups and leaders have written you about more progressive trends in housing, which focus on retaining seniors by keeping them in their existing homes with enhanced care or having them live in multigenerational homes with family support. This trend also is building or remodeling units in response to seniors' expressed desires for larger units that allow for storage, not smaller units as this ordinance would allow.

Please join me in opposing this proposal in favor of working on some sensible solutions to seniors’ needs, and other important housing issues while keeping the development process responsive to the concerns of the public.

[Your name]