Fox Hollow

“Universal appeal to adult housing, Guidelines make homes accessible”

By Emily Beaver

(Republican-American)

 

      Robert Lenkowski, 70, of Middlebury is retired from his Waterbury accounting practice, his grown children have moved away. Recently, he and his wife Antoinette were looking to downsize to a smaller home with a lawn that wouldn’t require three hours of maintenance, so they began looking for communities geared toward people over 55.

      They chose Fox Hollow, a 20-home active adult community being built off Mill Street and North Church Road in Naugatuck. The couple liked that the community’s association would take care of the lawn work and Antoinette liked that she could design her own kitchen.

      But what makes Fox Hollow unique, Robert Lenkowski said, is that the homes are designed so the couple can use the home as they age. The homes were built according to universal design, an architectural principle that aims to build structures accessible to everyone. Some common features of universally designed homes, including the homes at Fox Hollow, are no-step entries, doorways wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs and levers instead of doorknobs.

      “What can you do with a doorknob if you’re arthritic?” Robert Lenkowski asked.

      Gary Bonomo, president and chief executive officer of the company building Fox Hollow, said he got the idea for the community after trying to find a home for his aging mother. He couldn’t find a home that was both accessible and aesthetically pleasing, so his mother moved to Florida.

      Bonomo set out to create a community that offered universal design as a standard feature, and incorporated things like curb-free showers that looked beautiful rather than geriatric.

      “People don’t want to live somewhere that looks handicapped accessible,” he said.

      He expects Fox Hollow to be completed by the end of 2007 or early 2008. He has received deposits for six homes, which are being purchased by people from Newtown, Naugatuck and Brooklyn, NY.

      As more 55 and older developments crop up around the state, more homes have some elements of universal design, including first floor bed and laundry rooms, said Brenda Kelley, the state director of AARP, the non-profit organization that supports people over 50.

      The Village at Oxford Greens, a 591-unit active adult community in Oxford, features first-floor living but no other universal design features, said Mark Entenman, vice president of operations for Del Webb, the company that developed the village.

      Boulder Brook, a 35-unit active adult development in Prospect, has first-floor living and a neighborhood organization for lawn maintenance.

      Kelley, who lives in an active adult community in Windsor, said most active adult communities don’t incorporate as many universal design features as the homes at Fox Hollow. When Kelley moved into her home, she was frustrated because some universal design principles AARP was promoting were not incorporated in the house. She had the doorknobs replaced with levers and had a hang-bar that looks like a towel rack installed in her bathtub.

      Some active adult communities rely on luxury features, such as nearby golf courses or granite countertops, to attract buyers, Kelley said.

      “Granite counters are not the most important element of universal design,” she said. “I think Fox Hollow is going to be a fabulous community, but the trick is going to be using that design in homes in a range of price levels.”

      The homes at Fox Hollow cost between $375,000 and $500,000.

      Universal design is a smart design principle and is a more cost-effective strategy than building a standard house and retrofitting it to accommodate some with disabilities, said Samuel Gold, a senior planner for the Council of Governments of Naugatuck Valley.

     Age restricted housing is politically expedient for many developers, Gold said. No young children live in active adult communities, so municipalities view them as a source of tax revenue that won’t put a strain on public school systems.

      “Universal design is how homes should be built,” Gold said. “But the point is that it works for everyone. You can use it when you’re 35 just as much as you can when you’re 75. It shouldn’t be restricted by age.”

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