ORANGE : Planned Shelter for Homeless Approved

The Planning Commission voted unanimously this week to approve a transitional shelter for homeless women and children, despite protests from critics that a revised plan for the structure still does not meet architectural guidelines for the historic Old Towne area.

Old Towne residents said the Orange County Rescue Mission project, which would house up to 45 women and children, would overwhelm an already crowded neighborhood. But some project proponents said those concerns were a thinly veiled example of the syndrome called NIMBY--Not In My Back Yard.

At a public hearing last month, the mission withdrew plans for the Lemon Street shelter after Old Towne residents said the project would be welcome if it could meet height restrictions for the mile-square neighborhood of historic one- and two-story homes.

The original design for the Orange County Rescue Mission shelter was based on the Ronald McDonald House, the only three-story building in Old Towne, whose design was recently honored by the city’s beautification committee.

This week, the mission presented a revised proposal which scaled back the shelter from three stories to two, but expanded the floor space by 2,000 square feet. Old Towne residents said the building was still too large and would be out of place in the neighborhood.

“There’s no question about the need for the project,” said Robert Myers, whose Victorian home is around the block from the shelter site. But the new design “does look like a fast-track design that was thrown together in about two weeks. It does look like a hotel,” Myers said.

Robert Boice, president of the Old Towne Preservation Assn., said the large project would add to current overcrowding problems in southwest Old Towne.

Project proponents said these concerns were being used to delay or kill the plan by people who feared the unknown.

“I call it a ploy. I’ve seen it in operation so many times,” said Edmund Werner, chaplain of the Orangewood Children’s Home. Residents made similar complaints when the Episcopal Service Alliance sought a permit five years ago to build Martha House, a homeless shelter for women now located on Glassell Street, Werner said.

John Lands, President of the Orange County Rescue Mission, said the organization had compromised as much as possible on the $2.1-million project.

“They made it very clear that they didn’t mind the (project) but they also made it clear that they would rather have two houses there,” which would not be a cost-effective design for the shelter, Lands said.