Deferral sought for deaf -friendly housing

From: St. Augustine Record, FL - May 14, 2003

By KEN LEWIS Staff Writer

The developer of an affordable housing community for the deaf asked for a $546,000, six-year deferral of water and sewer fees Tuesday.

The St. Johns Board of County Commissioners voted to put the request on hold.

Summerset Village Apartments, a future 216-unit housing complex by Datil Pepper Road and U.S. 1, will be developed by Regency Development Associates, Inc. The complex will be deaf-friendly, with 40 percent of the units expected to be occupied by deaf residents, according to Tom Crawford, the county's director of housing and community services.

Summerset Village will have 132 apartments for seniors and 84 for families. Amenities will include public transportation, walking paths, a swimming pool and a fitness center, according to Deaf Senior Housing, a national group represented at the meeting.

The developer will equip all of the homes with extra wiring for needs like smoke-detectors with strobe-light alarms instead of strictly noise alarms.

Regency wants a 75 percent deferral. The county usually grants deferrals of about 66 percent for this kind of request -- Regency's is the biggest request yet, according to Commissioner Marc Jacalone.

Regency's Florida region Vice President Renee Sandell said the larger-than-average request stemmed from the expense of the extra wiring in the homes.

The commissioners declined to immediately grant the deferral because exact details about the wiring and its costs per apartment were unavailable at the meeting.

Ben Jackson, a spokesman for Deaf Senior Housing, told the commissioners that the extra wiring cost $850 per apartment in a similar complex in rural Georgia.

The complex he referred to was Spring Haven Apartments for the deaf and hard of hearing. The 24-unit apartment complex was built in Cave Spring, Ga., less than a mile from the Georgia School for the Deaf.

St. Augustine is the home of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind on San Marco Avenue.

Local attorney George McClure, whose father was a president of the Florida school, told the commissioners that deaf friends of his have sought help in finding a deaf-friendly retirement community. McClure is not representing Regency. But during the public comment session, he spoke in favor of creating a local complex to help and attract deaf retirees.

"You don't just stumble into any town and find a lot of deaf people," McClure said.

Florida has a deaf population of 300,000, Jackson said.

Commissioner Bruce Maguire said he was reluctant to underwrite a private endeavor.

"I'll take what I can get," Sandell said.

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