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City made right move in okaying group home

Hurrah for the Tarpon Springs City Commission, which last week stood up to a neighborhood that said a small group home for developmentally disabled adults was illegal and could be dangerous.

Several commissioners scolded residents who used such emotional and uninformed arguments to oppose a conditional use permit for the home. Then they approved the permit.

That is the kind of backbone elected officials need when confronted by residents' irrational fears of people who are different.

Maria Ancona asked the city for permission to operate the home on Anclote Drive. She and her 13-year-old daughter would live there along with Ancona's developmentally disabled sister, who Ancona said is 48 but has the mental age of a 4-year-old. Ancona plans to quit her job and care for her sister full time. For income, she also wanted to care for two other developmentally disabled adults.

Tarpon Springs' land development code allows group homes no closer than 1,000 feet apart without special permission from the city. Because the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens operates a group home down the street closer than 1,000 feet, Ancona needed the conditional use permit from the city. She filed her application and was scheduled to appear before the city planning board and then the City Commission.

At the planning board meeting last month, neighbors fought the group home, and the planning board voted against it 4-3. However, that vote was only advisory, and the City Commission had the final say.

At last week's commission meeting, neighbors were armed with a petition that contended the new home would be illegal and "an inconvenience, nucanse (sic) and potentially dangerous situation to the taxpaying residents." Some neighbors spoke or wrote about their fear of violence, traffic and "strangers" in the neighborhood. They said they suspected Ancona planned to operate a larger facility and didn't intend to live there. They complained that the neighborhood already endures regular visits by police because of the UPARC home.

Overall, they painted a picture of a quiet neighborhood that would be thrown into turmoil by the presence of three developmentally disabled or retarded people.

City commissioners didn't fall for it. They responded that operations at the UPARC home had no bearing on Ancona's case. They rejected the idea that a group home for three was a threat to the neighborhood or the neighbors' quality of life.

Commissioners David Archie, Peter Dalacos, Robin Saenger and Peter Nehr approved a conditional use for Ancona to care for two disabled nonrelatives. Mayor Beverley Billiris voted against the permit, but only because she feared for the safety of the disabled residents who would live in the home with so much hostility from the neighborhood.

The conditional use permit the commission approved gives Ancona the legal right to operate a group home in the neighborhood within 1,000 feet of another group home. It is "conditional" because the city retains the right to withdraw its approval if the home is not properly operated or becomes a nuisance.

That's as it should be, in Tarpon Springs and elsewhere. People who aren't able to live alone or don't have families to care for them need to have a place to live - a place to belong - in our communities. Group homes provide those places, and they should be allowed to operate as long as they do so within the law. The Tarpon Springs commission was right to turn aside the unreasonable fears of residents and give the home a chance to prove those residents wrong.

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 01:01:17]