Since 1962, the Pleasantville United Methodist Church has owned a vacant lot right next door. The plan was to one day turn it into a home for senior citizens. Now, 55 years later, it’s still just an empty space.
“Everybody thinks that this town is full of families and kids,” said Suhee Kim, a pastor at the church. “However, 40 percent of the people living in Pleasantville are senior citizens. So more needs to be done to accommodate them.”
Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living wants to buy the property from the church and build senior housing there. Kim was on board with the plan, because it would fulfill the church’s wish of having a senior living facility adjacent to the church.
“This would have been really good for seniors in Pleasantville, because in their older age seniors usually are more spiritual. So to have a living facility next door would be great,” Kim said.
However, the plan requires a zoning change from the Village of Pleasantville. The Village Board of Trustees rejected a zoning change for Sunrise Senior Living’s original proposal in July.
“The problem with Sunrise’s proposal was that they wanted to build much more than the town wanted them to,” Kim said.” The people living in this area did not want to see a 79-unit space being built. It would be too big.”
Sunrise has proposed changes in order to get the facility built. In a letter sent the Pleasantville Village Board of Trustees, Jerry Liang, Senior Vice President of Investments and Development at Sunrise Senior Living, addressed the changes Sunrise is planning to take.
“Our potential solution is to redesign to project as a smaller memory care only building that would be 1/3 smaller than the original proposal,” Liang said in his letter. ”Rather than a 79 unit, 3-story, 70q sq ft building, we would be proposing a 2-story, 48k sq ft building with 55 units.”
Sunrise will appear before the board at its meeting later this month. However, Kim does not believe that the board will approve the new proposal. She believes that there has not been enough public support.
“People always come up and ask me about then the senior home is getting built,” Kim said. ”I tell them if you want it built you need to show up to the board meetings and show your support. Until that happens, I don’t know if this is going to be built.”