several hearings<\/a> where residents and Elan officials testified about the benefits and downsides of the plans.<\/p>\nElan Gardens officials, along with several consultants and engineers working with the facility, said the plans fill a need for \u201caging in place,\u201d the concept of providing services to individuals as they age in the same facility, in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis graying or older population is going to need options for living arrangements and this\u2026age in place concept is becoming the preferred way to take care of the seniors in our community,\u201d James Tressler, the attorney representing the facility, said. \u201cIt allows seniors\u2026to age in place, stay with their families, stay with their medical providers and generally enjoy the benefits of the community where they may have, in fact, raised their families, own homes, work, live within the community and they still want to stay within the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tressler said property\u2019s topography, wetlands, the surrounding woods, and an existing sewer line and utility lines meant they had to move the plans closer to the existing building. He said a study presented at the first hearing on March 31 showed the plans won\u2019t bring additional noise, traffic or light to the area.<\/p>\n
Residents who spoke at last week\u2019s hearing, as well as James Brando, an attorney representing them, said the plans would violate the special exception the township granted the facility in 1995, which stated Elan Gardens could only build on four acres of the property and not obstruct nearby residences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe additional buildings and the very high fourth floor expansion will significantly affect our view and would be inconsistent with that past finding on the record in 1995,\u201d said Alex Fried, a resident of nearby Quail Hollow Drive.<\/p>\n
Fried said he understands the need for senior care but the plans proposed by Elan Gardens shouldn\u2019t be allowed in a residential area, adding there are no apartment buildings like the ones Elan Gardens is proposing in any residential zones in the township. He said the zoning restrictions on further development at the facility was attractive to him and many township residents.<\/p>\n
Fried\u2019s neighbor, Chris Vilello, said there have been noise and lighting issues from the existing facility. He presented a petition with 350 signatures to the board against the plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just really think that the board should preserve the zoning that\u2019s in place because the complex that they\u2019re looking to build \u2026 is not in fitting with the surrounding area and neighborhood and just the community at large,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t think the area is big enough to expand to this type of community within a community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tressler said Elan Gardens believes there is a need for the additional units at the site, pointing to studies showing the population of seniors in Lackawanna County expected to double by 2035. He said that neighbors have never complained to the facility about traffic, noise or lighting.<\/p>\n
Tressler added Elan has been a good neighbor for the last 30 years and wants to continue to do so. The plans are a natural progression of the facility\u2019s development and fits into the character of the neighborhood, which in addition to residences, includes two churches, the Scranton School for Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Children and the Abington Center for Education \u2014 formerly Clarks Summit University, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cElan views this as one, an exciting expansion, and number two, a very valuable expansion for those that are most vulnerable among us,\u201d Tressler said. \u201cIt\u2019s filling a very valuable need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Abington Twp. officials are poised to decide on a senior living community\u2019s expansion plans on Thursday. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,6799],"class_list":{"0":"post-165794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news","15":"tag-south-abington-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}