In an interesting twist on zoning and senior housing, the Lake Oswego Review ran an article that discusses the trouble that a city council is having over a ruling for a proposed location for a senior housing complex. The project has been stalled since it was approved in late 2007 and has been further mired by a ruling by a state land use board that the city erred when it allowed Northwest Housing Alternatives by allowing its use in flexibility for approving congregate housing that serves life-functioning disabilities due to age or medical conditions. In the process of approving the project, the city council ruled “that because the development would serve senior citizens, it also would also serve disabled people. In doing so, the city council effectively declared that old age is a disability.”
Did the people who wrote the code have an intent to imply aging and disability go hand in hand? Probably not but this issue has appeared in the past and is likely to occur again in other municipalities in the US.
For the full article, click here.
