One can easily understand the concern of residents in a neighborhood when zoning changes are being considered. Zoning is vital to a community in that it helps protect the character and value of property owners’ investment in their homes.

Strong zoning ordinances can give peace of mind to long-time residents when change does come, as it always does. Strong zoning laws allow the change to be monitored and regulated to keep intact the flavor or character of the area.

So comes a dispute Thursday night on a venture being proposed on property near Silver Cross Nursing Home behind King’s Daughters Medical Center. A Magee-based company is proposing an Assisted Living Facility for 44 retirees on property now owned by Central Baptist Church. To construct the facility, zoning changes are needed on the five-acre site.

Residents of the Meadowbrook Drive area are upset about the proposal and voiced their objection to the Zoning Commission Board Thursday night. Due to some technical difficulties related to the zone change-filing request, the decision on the request was tabled until next week.

Zoning Board members were inundated with angry calls from Meadowbrook area residents voicing their opposition. A petition with 200-plus signatures expressing that opposition was presented to the zoning board. While there is organized opposition to the site, there too are proponents. Both sides were allowed to voice their concerns during the two-and-a-half-hour-long hearing.

This most recent proposal for an assisted living facility in Brookhaven is the fifth attempt since 2008. Three of the last four proposals never received approval after public outcry sent developers packing. One proposal was approved and property purchased in downtown Brookhaven, but it too received stiff opposition and the developer has since backed away.

Not to single out the Meadowbrook residents for they are not the first, but to a city that once touted itself as a Certified Retirement City, this deep opposition over the past eight years to building such a facility is puzzling. It begs the question of how we can ask retirees to move to our community but refuse to allow facilities to be constructed they might eventually want to live in. It begs the question of how we as a community plan to treat our own parents. It begs a question on Brookhaven’s future ability to grow and prosper.

As with any emotional situation, misinformation is abundant. The proposal involved zoning changes only on the five-acre site – not rezoning of the residential property in the Meadowbrook area. The zoning changes being requested by the developers are tougher than those in any R-1 residential area in Brookhaven. Effectively as we understand it, the developer must ask permission when they want to plant even a tree! Any changes to the original documentation approval, must be re-approved by the zoning board.

Sure, any neighborhood should ask hard questions and property owners should be given direct and honest answers, they deserve it! But at the same time, this community has to ask some hard questions of ourselves, for we must find a solution to assist our elderly community in their later years. They deserve it too!

A final decision is expected next Thursday evening.

 Bill Jacobs is chairman of the Brookhaven/Lincoln County Industrial Development Foundation.