I met with an individual at our senior center today that is wanting to change the living arrangements for our older population. She would like to be able to build a cottage on her property to house her parents with an upstairs space for a live in caregiver. Problem is our zoning. When I inquired about doing so through the "granny flat" legislation, she informed me it has to be an attached addition, cannot be detached. She's unable to build the cottage because of land use, zoning restrictions. What? I thought the granny flats were to help our parents and grandparents.
Anyway, while it's a slow process changing city hall and of course there are concerns about housing here, because of the possibility of additional areas being overtaken by students (being as we have 2 universities and a community college) and while I love the students for their help in our local economy, I understand homeowners concerns with renters and cars and noise and oh my, you get the picture.
Still, I applaud her desire to change things. We all hear that we, the baby boomers don't want to ultimately be in nursing homes, or even assisted living, we want to change the environment to something else that works better for us. Question is what is that? This person is wanting to take the steps to do that, change how we age. It starts slowly and with momentum from us, those boomers, we will get it changed for when we get there. How do you wish to live in your old age? If you think you know, email me. We'll all be part of the momentum!
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