By Thomas Tracy
Without much controversy, Community Board 11 gave its blessing to a proposal by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) to bring a “group apartment” to Kings Highway. Board members overwhelmingly approved the measure during its February 8 meeting at the Holy Family Home, despite complaints from two concerned neighbors, one claiming that if the board approves the plan, they will be opening the floodgates for a deluge of problems. “I know business people,” said one West 4th Street resident, whose property abuts the apartment building. “If you allow this, then this building will become nothing more than a hospital.” Historically, many group home proposals are met with staunch opposition by neighbors concerned about everything from the increase of ambulettes on the residential streets to the general welfare of the community when the new mentally handicapped neighbors arrive. But this time, the only opposition came from the West 4th Street resident fearing the birth of the hospital, and another neighbor, who claimed to have problems with the apartment building itself, which is still under construction. “They [the builders] keep a lot of industrial machinery on what they call a parapet in the back of the building,” she said. “It’s 15 feet from my bedroom window.” When the machinery is on, “it disrupts my quality of life as well as the neighborhood’s quality of life.” The neighbor also had questions as to what would be put on the bottom of the apartment building. The ground floor of the building is supposed to be set aside for retail, she claimed. These concerns have little to do with OMRDD’s proposal, which is to take two of the apartments in the building, convert them into one unit and move in five adult patients, the youngest being 53 years old. John Flarretty, a spokesman for OMRDD, said that all five tenants are highly functioning individuals who will be spending their time attending day programs. Besides the tenants, two staffers will be going in and out of the apartment. At least one staff member will be supervising the group at all times. The five tenants are moving to Gravesend from another group home in Windsor Terrace. “They had no problems regarding complaints,” Flarretty said, adding that the tenants are moving to the apartment for the simplest of reasons. “They’re getting older,” he said. “Right now they are having problems getting up the stairs at their current home.” Although they said that they had no problem with OMRDD’s proposal, CB 11 members said that they cannot disapprove a request for a group home unless they can show that the board is already over-saturated with them.
