Georgia developers plan community for developmentally disabled people near Athens

From Athens Banner-Herald:

Organizers who want to build a small community in Winterville for developmentally disabled people will share their plans tonight and try to quell any concerns about the project.

Backers of the planned community, called Sycamore Ridge, hope to see the development rise on a tract of land that extends from Parkview Road to Main Street.

The meeting comes on the same night the city Planning & Zoning Board meets but is not an official city gathering, said Michael Todd, chairman of the planning board.

“They came before us at our last planning and zoning meeting and shared basic information about what they’re looking to do. We recommended to them that they conduct a public forum. It’s not a public hearing by the (city) council or the Planning & Zoning Board. It’s a meeting at our request to get public involvement,” Todd said.

According to the group’s Web site, Sycamore Ridge will provide housing, employment and recreational services to adults with developmental disabilities. The group was founded in 1997 as the Charter Autism Foundation and for most of its history financed or created programs for children with autism.

Sycamore Ridge supporters include professors with the University of Georgia College of Education and the group Hope Haven of Northeast Georgia, an Athens nonprofit that provides services to people with developmental disabilities.

Developmental disabilities include severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and mental retardation that arise before adulthood — usually at birth.

They are expected to last through a lifetime and affect a person’s ability to engage in daily activities that most of us take for granted, such as working, speaking or walking.

Some Winterville citizens already have raised concerns, but at least some of those worries are based on a misunderstanding of what the group has in mind, Todd said.

“I hope people will come in and listen and let these people educate them on what they need to do,” he said.

Advocates say there’s a big need for more housing and residential support for people with developmental disabilities.

But not all advocates support the idea of communities for people with developmental disabilities.

About 7,500 disabled people are on a state waiting list to get Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services, said Patricia Nobbie, deputy director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities.

“There is a need for housing, and there is a need for residential support. I don’t believe there’s a need for it all to be together in one facility,” Nobbie said. “Our mission is to promote policies that help people live in the same communities that everyone else lives in.”