Luxury apartments given initial OKs

Grandview Care wants to build three-story, 10-unit building

TELL CITY - The Tell City Advisory Plan Commission gave its approval Thursday to a 10-unit luxury apartment complex to be built this summer near the Fennhaven area of Tell City. Votes to recommend the project to the city council and zoning-appeals board came despite concerns from nearby residents that the extra traffic would further clog small roadways in the area.

Grandview Care Inc., a company founded by Guy Neil and LaVerne Ramsey of Tell City, owns more than 10 acres of land behind the Emergency Medical Services Building and to the north of Perry County Memorial Hospital. The land is currently fenced in, Tell City attorney Chris Goffinet said Thursday during his presentation on Grandview Care's behalf.

The company wants to construct a three-story, 64-foot by 124-foot building that will include an enclosed parking garage. The first and second stories would offer four apartments each about 1,500 square-feet in size with two larger ones on the third floor. The apartments, especially those on the top floor, would afford views of the Ohio River.

Goffinet said the apartment complex would be gated, with residents using electronic keys to enter the grounds. A new private drive serving the site is planned and would be maintained by the company. Goffinet said the new access road would be about 120 feet north of the EMS station.

Residents of the area said they didn't oppose plans for the apartment but worried narrow Park Avenue would be overwhelmed with additional traffic.

"The street is too narrow the way it is and when two cars meet each other, they end up making ruts in our yards or backing up in driveways," said Kathy Swaney, who lives in the area.

Richard Brunson asked what the luxury-apartment project would do to the value of his modest home, saying it would decrease its value.

Goffinet countered that the project could raise local property values.

Park Avenue is recognized by the city as a street but like most streets in the Fennhaven area, is narrower than others in the city. Park Avenue also serves ambulances and some residents mentioned that ambulances back into their bays. Other neighbors said the narrow street becomes a raceway as hospital employees hurry to and from lunch.

The commission approved a development plan for the project, with the understanding that the company will give the city needed utility easements. The commission also approved the project as a conditional use. The site already has an R-2 residential zoning designation that allows multi-family residential units with approval of the city's plan commission and board of zoning appeals.

The conditional use will be considered by the zoning-appeals board at its March 24 meeting. The plan commission offered a favorable recommendation to a request to vacate unimproved streets on Grandview Care-owned land. Goffinet said most of the streets were not named.

The city's common council will take up the street-vacation request at its April 7 meeting.

Dr. Dianne Rudolph, a plan-commission member, asked if the apartments were intended for people with disabilities or who need assisted-living services. Goffinet said they were not.

According to Grandview Care's Web site, the nonprofit company is "dedicated to providing affordable housing and healthcare alternatives to those persons and households that need it most."

The company also owns the Cambridge and Continental apartment complexes in Tell City, the Golden Years Center in Cannelton and several other housing projects in Indiana and Kentucky.