GAINESVILLE - The Gainesville planning staff is recommending denial of a proposal for a group home on Park Street but approval of a crisis center for women and children on Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and a small shopping center on Dawsonville Highway.<br />
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The shopping center is planned near Beechwood Boulevard. The city planning and appeals board is being asked to consider annexation and rezoning requests for the 11-acre, 49,000-square-foot complex. The property is the site of a former nursing home <br />
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The crisis center for women and children request is being made by My Sister's Place which is asking for a Special Use Permt for a five-unit apartment house at 2480 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard near Fair Street. My Sister's Place wants to use two of the units for a crisis center for women with an eye toward expanding in the future. It would be a shelter that provides a 90-day program that enables residents "to begin work, save money and organize their lives while providing food, shelter, clothing, personal development, job placement and a support system." The planning staff has recommended approval but with conditions.<br />
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In recommending rejection of a group home for men on 1050 Park Street near Perry Street, staffers cited the city's Comprehensive Plan and the make-up of the neighborhood, mostly single-family residences. Agora House has been operating a men's group home at that location without a valid occupancy permit. The group home provides housing for recovering addicts while requiring them to work a full-time job, attend a 12-step daily meeting, weekly group therapy, and individual counseling. The men range in age from 18-65 with the average resident bing 27 years old. <br />
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Controversy erupted several years ago over the location of such facilities in Gainesville.<br />
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These matters are to be taken up by the Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board on Tuesday.<br />
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