Assisted Living Homes

If you are an opponent of the proposed Lucas Home Rule Charter being voted on this week, this article might be of interest to you. Fairview has already passed their Home Rule charter, but you still might get some good information from the article. I will explain how Home Rule Charter and assisted living homes are intertwined at the end of the article.

Assisted Living Centers are quite popular and serve an important need. However, they are almost always located in commercial areas which means there is usually very little objection to their existence.

But what I have started noticing (within the past year especially), is an attempt to bring these centers into residential neighborhoods with either existing homes or even building a new home. These homes typically have two senior citizens per bedroom along with one full time nurse. This means you will have 9 adults living in a 4 bedroom home.

How do I know this? We had an offer on one of our listings for an assisted living home. The text below was taken verbatim from the e-mail which accompanied the offer.

We are good neighbors, we are quiet, no parties, no loud music, we just want to live our lives in the peaceful environment of your home. It will be a NORMAL house with no signage, no more cars than normal.
We will not expand or change the building, only provide exceptional maintenance building and beautification of the lot.
There will be no deliveries, we shop for our own food.
If anyone on the street has any concerns or complaints, you know where to find us and we will respond.
We will be an asset to the community and fit seamlessly into the neighborhood.
We will have a house warming party to get to know all of the neighbors.
We will be a good business partner to the city now and far into the future.

You will have to make your own judgment as to whether this is true or not, but from my own perspective, I would protest vigorously if an assisted living home was planned for our neighborhood. I just don't believe a neighborhood is the appropriate place for a business venture of this type. I can come up with just as many reasons (and more) why assisted living homes are not a good fit for a neighborhood ... starting with substantially devaluing all of the homes around it! My site, my opinion :-)

The town of Fairview will not allow them, period. The town of Lucas requires the company to fill out an SUP (Special Use Permit) and "the city will decide whether to approve that use or not". I know first hand this concept has been attempted and shot down in Lucas before, but I still called the city to ask if they had ever allowed one. The response was "not to my recollection". So it is probably safe to say, they are never going to be allowed within either city limit. So what's the big deal?

The problem is not within the city itself, it's with the ETJ (Extra-territorial Jurisdiction) surrounding and scattered throughout the cities.

It is important to remember that cities only have very limited powers over their ETJ. Simply put, a city with a Home Rule Charter can make the ETJ areas go away, whether the property owner wants to be annexed or not. Fairview passed their home rule charter on their first attempt and they have been busy since then annexing almost every Fairview ETJ property into the city. They now have complete control over what is happening within their boundaries, including what was once ETJ land.

Lucas, on the other hand, did not pass their home rule charter (at least on the first attempt). I was initially against the charter because I believed the city was going to force sewer into the city (which would lead to multifamily, commercial, and homes on postage stamp lots). But I also knew there was a downside to denying the home rule charter. Without a home rule charter, a city can only annex ETJ properties with the property owner's permission. Lucas has no say as to whether an assisted living home can be allowed into their ETJ, and unannexed land meanders throughout Lucas.

OK, I am going to digress a little here, but please stay with me. It is important to understand why many ETJ property owners prefer to remain unannexed. That is probably never going to change, so forced annexation is the only way to bring them into the city. I am not criticizing nor agreeing with their reasoning. I am only laying it out on the table.

Many Lucas ETJ property owners see no benefit whatsoever to being annexed into the city. In their minds, they already have all the services they need. Lucas provides water to them and they, like the rest of Lucas, get their police protection exclusively from the county sheriff's department. The only thing left is fire and ambulance. My understanding is the Lucas Fire Dept will still be called in an ETJ emergency, but it will be the last call made by the 911 operator, not the first.

Many ETJ property owners also believe they can sell their land for more money to developers, and you know what, they are probably right. The city cannot impose impact fees at the time those lots are being developed. That saves the developers a lot of money which can be passed on to the home builders in the form of less expensive lots. However, the loss of valuable impact fees hurts the city, and unfortunately, that money is gone forever. Even if the new development is annexed into the city after it is finished out, you can't charge those impact fees retroactively.

Nor can the city require interior home sprinkler systems on the larger homes within an ETJ. Those sprinkler systems are required on larger homes within the Lucas city limits. That saves that home buyer about $10,000 over the same home built within the Lucas city limits where an interior sprinkler system is required. You can see how this is a very sensitive subject right now with the town of Lucas.

And finally, if your property is not within the city limits, you don't have to pay city taxes. You still have county and community college property taxes, but you are saving good money by not paying city taxes. Put yourself in the shoes of the ETJ property owners and ask yourself if you were they, why you would want to allow your property to be annexed?

Along with normal residential developers, the companies who specialize in these assisted living homes are focusing their attention on the ETJ's right now. What I don't know (because I am not an attorney), is whether an assisted living home use will remain when that property area is finally annexed into the city. My instincts tell me yes, it will be grandfathered in, but since it has never happened, I just don't know.

I wouldn't say assisted living homes are a huge demand, but inquiries have been made into our listings three times over the past year, and I am just one of many Realtors who has listings in Lucas. Unfortunately, if we are representing a property that might be used for an assisted living home within an ETJ of Lucas, Fairview, or even Allen, if an offer comes in, it is our duty to the seller to try to make that deal happen ... regardless of our own, personal feelings. Although we run the risk of being the "bad guy Realtors" to the surrounding neighbors, we have no choice.

If you think the Home Rule Charter is a good thing for the town of Lucas, you can express yourself at the ballot box. Same goes if you think it's a bad thing. Early voting is going on now for the special election this Saturday. You can also vote on the Lovejoy ISD Board of Trustees.

I make it a point to never endorse any particular candidate so as not to offend anyone, but I can tell you this, Rhonda and I are voting For the home rule charter this time around. And not just because of what you have read in this article. We think that more and more pressure is being put on Lucas from developers and the the city needs more power and the teeth to get things done when needed. If you would like to review the Home Rule Charter, please click here!