Well, there it is. Sunrise Senior Living wants to buy just over 5 acres from the Village at the front of K-Park. This is fast tracked folks and I have some concerns.

I understand we need to have some affordable senior living facilities. But smack dab on prime real estate on SR 441?

Bad, bad, bad idea.

Do we really want an ALF on SR 441? Do the seniors? Any seniors you know excited about exiting onto SR 441 at any time of day? None of the ones I spoke to are.

Maybe we should ask, why SR 441? Well, it seems that Sunrise says it needs traffic visibility. What? Well, perhaps I should say, For what? I don't know about you, but I can't remember the last time I drove by and an ALF (on any road, let alone a busy road), smacked my forehead and said out loud, "Doh, I should stop by and get my parents in that facility!" I think any of us would put just a tad more thought into it.

After all, its not like saying, "Doh, let's stop and get ice cream!"

This won't be a small building, either. Is this something we want, esthetically, on SR 441? Five acres is a lot of land to have this on there.

And what a wonderful and relaxing view the seniors will have. I'm sure my mom and dad would love to look longingly out the window and gaze at the breath taking vista of SR 441.

But that wily Village Council. They are absolutely giddy at the $5,000,000 offer. This offer is about $200,000 per acre over the true value. So, why would Sunrise pay so much? They want to take it out of the public bidding process. After all, that's why Sunrise gave the Council a November 28th deadline to accept the deal.

If Council should accept this, we should be stand up and say "No". Why short circuit the system? Why not put it out to bid? Maybe someone will offer more. It's anyone's guess.

Believe it or not, I think it's a pity issue. Yep, they feel sorry for Sunrise after they voted to deny them to be part of the Hospitality Shoppes. This was the right decision, by the way.

So this is the solution? Because they feel sorry for them, give (I should say sell) them the last piece of primo real estate on SR 441? Without getting other bids on the property?

Oh, and the proceeds of the sale aren't going to reduce your property taxes. Nope, not one red cent. You see, the money to buy that property came from the Utilities Funds for water re-use purposes. And the park was being designed to make sure re-use was a big part of it.

So, once the Utilities Fund gets repaid (about $6,000,000), then they can use the money. And without frontage on SR 441, the remainder of the property is not worth nearly as much.

Do what's right for the citizens of this Village ... "Just say no" as Nancy Reagan once said,

But that would take some vision.

There are other, better places for this facility. I'll discuss these in the next few days.

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