Elderly home stuck in the infant stage

Author: Peter Mueller

On Sept. 27, Eastview at Middlebury, a new non-profit organization that facilitates retirement community living, began giving tours of its future site. As of now, there is little to see other than farmland, but the view is bound to change since the area is set to offer 101 new housing units for the elderly.

The 30-acre site, just south of Porter Medical Center, is perceived as a sensible location for a retirement community given the convenience of easily accessible medical services for the elderly. Eastview will offer a variety of living options for retirees. There will be 67 independent living units (30 cottages and 37 apartments), 18 assisted living apartments and 16 housing units for "demented care" and Alzheimer patients.

Middlebury College owns the land and plans to lease it to Porter Medical Center. The inevitable increase in the real estate value of the site once Eastview is established will not affect the price of Porter's current lease from Middlebury, which is maintained at one dollar per year. With such a low rent, the hospital will have additional revenue to reinvest in its own facilities.

Despite its plans to become Porter Hospital's southerly neighbor, the retirement community is not the hospital's initiative. Rob Alberts, a local land developer, is responsible for the development. Before introducing the plans in 2004, Alberts and his team distributed mail surveys to ensure local residents were in favor of the development. The community response was, for the most part, positive, and Alberts and his development team decided to move ahead with the project.

Speaking on behalf of Porter Hospital, Ron Hallman, Porter Medical Center vice president of public relations, was pleased with the retirement community. According to Hallman, the retirement community is "another piece of the puzzle." Middlebury will now be able to tend to the needs of all of its citizens, including the elderly.

Connie Leach, a spokesperson for Eastview, described the current options for retirees in Addison County as "limited." Pointing to local residents' reactions, Leach said her sentiment is reinforced by the "phenomenal response" to the presale program that offers potential residents of the facility a chance to hold spots at Eastview, provided they make a fully refundable $1000 down payment. Eastview's goal was to make 50 presales before the end of October. According to Leach, Eastview wholly surpassed their goal, making 90 presales by the end of September. Most of the presales so far have been to Addison County residents and not outsiders, as some of the local residents had feared.

The presale program, initiated following the project's conceptual approval from town hall, was created to enable developers to gauge the economic viability of their plan before the shovel hits the ground. Leach emphasized that the developers did little to no marketing, attributing the success to word of mouth and an overwhelming demand for the facility.

But the retirement home has not received such a positive response from all members of the Middlebury community. Preserving the local identity is important to residents as well as the developers who do not want the large-scale development to become an intrusion on Vermont's rural character.

Some residents of South Street, where the development will be built, have voiced concerns about the inevitable increase in traffic. Porter Hospital is also located on South Street and neighbors complain that the traffic flow is heavy as it is. Issues such as noise pollution and an increased population are considered potential threats to the serenity of the rural community. Residents also showed anxiety about the speed of motorists around their homes.

Hallman acknowledges this as a problem and understands it firsthand as a hospital employee. But, "it would be hard to find any location [for the retirement facility] in a small town like Middlebury that would not affect someone," he asserted. `

All things considered, the development will continue as scheduled. According to Leach, the next step is submitting their Act 250 application for a building permit, which should be completed by mid-October. Patiently awaiting approval, the developers are eager to break ground sometime in spring 2006.