Senior Housing

Elaine Watson, 65, spent three years searching for an apartment complex that catered to the special housing needs of senior citizens.In August, her search ended at Woodsdale Senior Housing, a planned community of 130 apartments designed and built specifically for senior citizens. The project is located on Woodsdale Road near Constant Friendship."I don't have drugs here, or alcoholics, or older teen-agers whose parents don't care what they're doing," said Watson, who previouslylived in Dundalk.

Construction has begun on more than 100 housing units for senior citizens in Dundalk. Baltimore County officials gathered this week for a ground breaking for the Greens at Logan Field, a 102-unit development being built on the site of Baltimore's first municipal airfield after World War I. The Enterprise Homes development, scheduled for completion in 2014, is for senior citizens who earn 60 percent or less of the area median income. The $15.2 million project is set to include mostly one-bedroom apartments, plus 18 two-bedroom units.

Just about the only excitement in the semi-rural residential neighborhood near the intersection of Oklahoma and Bennett roads, in Eldersburg, is provided by occasional errant motorists who misjudge the sharp downhill curve on Oklahoma where it approaches Bennett from the northeast and either end up in a ditch or in somebody's yard. But the billboard-sized banner that one homeowner recently put in his front yard - along with dozens of smaller signs that pepper Oklahoma Road - reveal that this neighborhood, where old and new residential subdivisions abut a few remaining farms and a stretch of the Liberty Reservoir watershed, is in the midst of a controversy.

The Greens at Irvington Mews, a 100-unit residential community for seniors and adults with disabilities, celebrated its Grand Opening on Monday. The four-story structure is in the 4300 block of Frederick Avenue across from Mount Saint Joseph High School in the Irvington neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. The $16 million project was developed by Enterprise, an affordable housing finance and development firm that was founded by J ames W.  Rouse, who conceived Columbia. Of the 100 apartments, 85 are already occupied, Enterprise said.  The community was designed by the Baltimore-based architecture firm  Hord Coplan Macht Inc. The contractor was Harkins Builders Inc., headquartered in  Marriottsville.

Weeks ago, when 5th District County Commissioner Doug Howard scheduled his April 30 meeting with Eldersburg residents, he assumed it would be the usual "get-together" where the commissioner gives updates on ongoing issues such as the county budget, funding for schools and the future of the beleaguered Carrolltown Center mall. But by the time this past week's meeting rolled around, a more pressing matter steam rolled other issues aside - namely the controversial proposal to build a 235-unit retirement facility on the 16-acre Ely property near the Oklahoma and Bennett roads in Eldersburg.

In cities and suburbs across America, an array of housing designed for the elderly has sprung up to cope with the rapid graying of the population."Continuing-care retirement communities," group homes, "assisted-living" sheltered housing, subsidized senior housing, home-sharing arrangements all have proliferated, but still often fall far short of the demand.In Anne Arundel County, the demand for every type of senior housing in every price range has outstripped the supply in recent years. Below is a sampling of some of the county's senior housing.

THE VILLAS AT Wildwood Park officially welcomed the newest addition to the senior housing village at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.Presiding at the event were Mount Airy Mayor Gerald R. Johnson and Canterbury Homes developer Michael Berman.About 5: 15 p.m., the mayor cut the ribbon at the entrance to Merry-Go-Round Way, the future site for 27 single-family houses and duplexes nestled on a cul-de-sac in Wildwood Park. The community is off Merridale Boulevard behind the library and the senior center.

With the recession continuing to freeze even one of the most reliable housing sectors, Erickson Retirement Communities has dropped plans to buy and develop up to 188 acres of historic Doughoregan Manor in Howard County as a senior living complex. Erickson's decision to abandon a nearly two-year-old plan to build 2,000 senior housing units on the parcel creates uncertainty for the manor, the only home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence that remains in family hands. The family of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the declaration, had hoped to use money from the sale of the parcel to restore and preserve the nearly 300-year-old family mansion and other historic structures once occupied by their famed ancestor.

The Columbia developer of a controversial proposal for a senior housing development in downtown Ellicott City is considering a different site in the historic district.D. A. McDaniels Inc., in conjunction with the county's housing commission, will pursue the new site -- near the Roger Carter Neighborhood Park and Center on Fels Lane -- if the Howard County Council passes a resolution that will allow the agency to acquire the property without receiving permission from all the owners.Mary C. Heine, who owned the property, died early this century and "has quite a few heirs," who have control of it, said Leonard S. Vaughan, executive director of the county Office of Housing and Community Development.

The County Council has cleared the way for a proposed housing complex for moderate-income senior citizens in Glen Burnie. The project's developer hopes to open the apartments on Furnace Branch Road in two years. The $7 million, four-story Park View at Furnace Branch would be open to seniors 62 and older whose income does not exceed 60 percent of the area's median. For an individual, that works out to $25,900. One-bedroom apartments would rent for about $480 a month plus utilities, and two-bedroom units about $555.

Construction began Tuesday on a housing development in the Greenspring neighborhood of northwest Baltimore for limited-income seniors. Renaissance Gardens will be a 60-unit independent living complex in the 4300 block of Pimlico Road. The complex will be four stories and all units will have one bedroom. There will be several common areas, including a multipurpose dining room, a living room, a computer room and an activities room. Some on-site health and social services will be offered for residents.

Yoga Classes with Tina Marks will be held Tuesdays at O'Malley Senior Activity Center, 1275 Odenton Road, beginning Tuesday, July 3. Therapeutic yoga is offered from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., and intermediate therapeutic yoga is offered from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. For cost and more information, call 410-222-6227. Hot dog hoedown Annapolis Senior Activity Center members can don their Western garb and enjoy a "hot dog hoedown" beginning at noon July 25 at the center, 119 S. Villa Ave. Tickets are $4 for two grilled hot dogs, chips, soda and a cookie.

A Baltimore County developer said he has abandoned pursuit of building "big box" stores at the site of the North Point Government Center in Dundalk and moving those offices to the site of a nearby former whiskey distillery that he owns. John Vontran of Perry Hall said this week that he had dropped the idea, which received mixed reviews in the community and no public backing from county officials, including the district councilman. "It was just an idea," Vontran said after a public hearing at Patapsco High School at which opponents outnumbered supporters of his remaining project: a mix of senior housing and offices at the old Joseph E. Seagram & Sons property on Sollers Point Road in Dundalk.

A new public-private plan is under way to renovate the long-vacant Cockeysville Elementary School building on York Road for use as a senior center and housing for up to 108 senior citizens.Three local partners have won sole negotiating rights to the 1926 stone building in the 10500 block of York Road, after responding to Baltimore County's request for proposals.Under the tentative arrangement, the county would give up the old building, which it closed in 1981, provide $500,000 in federal block grant money for the project, and allow the new owners to pay a relatively low flat fee each year instead of higher property taxes.

A proposal to impose new limits on construction of senior communities in Howard County will be tabled by the County Council until next month to allow senior advocates time to suggest changes. Ellicott City-Elkridge Councilman Christopher J. Merdon initially proposed increasing from 20 to 50 the minimum number of units for each age-restricted housing project for people age 55 and older - a change that would limit senior developments to a smaller number of larger parcels. Merdon acted after residents in one Ellicott City neighborhood protested construction of a senior townhouse complex close to their developments of traditional single-family homes.