|
The town of Hudson, Quebec, its places, people and businesses online.
Hudson to Finally Get Seniors' Housing
It seems that whenever a developer wants to have his concept approved, he throws seniors' housing into the proposal. Then, once the project is underway, the seniors' housing is never built. Residents have seen this happen repeatedly in Hudson. Still in the plans are seniors' residences in the new Sandy Beach develpoment but, while the location would be ideal, the land is fairly expensive putting the housing out of reach of most seniors if in fact it is ever built.
Now three proposals are in front of the town council, specifically for the building of seniors' housing and not linked to a larger development. The common thread is that all three need town support, either in the form of the providing of a suitable parcel of land or for re-zoning.
The most concrete seems to be the proposal by the owner of "Le Maxwell" in Baie d'Urfe who already runs such a facility and wants to buy the town lot across from Thompson Park to put up his residence. The lot has appropriate zoning and it's a beautiful location with seniors having a view of and access to the lake but it is far out of town and activities at Thompson Park sometimes tend to be on the noisy side.
Local resident Roland Schulz also has a proposal to build a seniors' home but he wants the town to provide the land and, so far, the town has not made a decision. Schulz says he can't wait much longer but it doesn't look like the town is going to commit to any of the projects in the near future. If there is room for only one such facility in Hudson, then the town's decision will mean the death of the other two proposals.
The newest project has been put on the table by a group of local businessmen and professionals. They have purchased the large lot off Cote St. Charles above Oakland and want to build facilities offering all levels of care for seniors. While the location is good, some residents question whether this area will support the high residential density which the group requires. Instead of 12 houses as zoned at the moment, the group needs 60 units to make the project worthwhile. Such a change may have to go to a referendum. The group intends to involve an outside care provider but doesn't have any expertise of its own.
The new group wants the town to hold off on any decision until they can flesh out their own proposal which they plan to do by September of this year. Residents wonder if, by that time, the other proposers will have lost interest and whether the new group will then decide not to proceed either. But chances are better than ever that one of these proposals will succeed and that Hudson seniors will no longer have to leave the community when they require assisted care.