Mental health group's project riding on controversial James City rezoning proposal
It's May 29. Hope Family Village says it's "back to square one" if Cardinal Ridge rezoning isn't approved. James City County will survey residents on what they think about the county and development.
Hope Family Village, whose members have been working more than a decade to establish a unique mental health community, might have to go back to the drawing board if the controversial Cardinal Ridge project is turned down by the James City County board of supervisors next month.
That’s because the group is relying on land they would receive from the D.R. Horton development group as part of Horton’s rezoning request to build more than 1,000 homes on 366 acres of surplus property at Eastern State Hospital’s campus off DePue Drive. More than 200 of the homes would be designated affordable housing priced for families earning less than the county’s median income.
Horton has agreed to give Hope Family Village 25 acres for their project.
“We’re back to square one” if the Horton rezoning falls through when the supervisors vote on it June 9, said Lisa R. Thomas, president of Hope Family Village. She said the group would probably need to spend another two years to get the land rezoned.
That predicament has pitted the mental health group against residents of The Mews townhome development, who have been campaigning against Cardinal Ridge.
Hope Family Village began as a group of families with relatives struggling with mental illness. They participated in the Williamsburg chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness support group, Thomas said.
Thomas, who became legal guardian for a mentally ill young man, retired from the Child’s Development Resources nonprofit after more than 30 years as deputy director.
She said the families operated a successful Fairweather Lodge home for four mentally ill men off Winston Drive for three years. Unlike a group home, a Fairweather Lodge operates more like a fraternity home for individuals whose mental health problems are under control, but who need help transitioning to independent life.
The Lodge was nationally certified within 18 months because it surpassed national metrics for maintaining its residents’ health, avoiding re-hospitalization, and providing counseling on nutrition, employment and social involvement through activities like bowling, Thomas said.
When the landlord who owned the home decided to take it back for remodeling work, the group decided to focus on their Hope Family Village concept, which will include two lodges – one for men and one for women – as well as a novel concept called co-housing.
Co-housing projects are aimed at building communities where residents socialize and work together, and are usually aimed at groups like veterans or senior citizens who don’t want to be alone, Thomas said. The 25 homes the group wants to build at Hope Family Village are “open to anyone who wants to live there, (but) ...they to know that our focus is really on mental health.”
Thomas said having residents living alongside others with mental health problems will dispel the stigma attached to mental health problems.
The group commissioned a study from William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, which suggested the group look to Eastern State Hospital land that had been declared surplus.
After several failed attempts to get land for free, or at a reduced rate, the group began working with developers who were attempting to buy and develop the property.
Thomas said the 25-acre property offered by the developers as part of their pitch to get rezoning was ideal because it was next door to the new Community Behavioral Health wellness center that is going up on another part of the property.
“Part of the reason that we were willing to hitch our wagon to (D.R. Horton) ....is because they have the knowledge, they have the expertise, they have the resources,” that the nonprofit mental health group lacks, Thomas said. “They’ve invested almost $2 million so far in the environmental studies, the traffic studies... all these things that would cost our little nonprofit, a lot of money that we don’t have.”
James City County staff and its planning commission recommended the board of supervisors approve Horton’s request.
But residents from The Mews have organized a campaign to convince the supervisors otherwise, saying it would create crime, hurt the environment, and make it harder for them to exit their development on Longhill Rd.
James City County resident survey coming
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