Cornell City Council; Adult family home delayed by new information

By Ginna Young

Cornell has several adult family homes located within the city limits, and Eric Phelps hoped to open one more and obtain a Conditional Use Permit to operate a four-person adult family home on his property at North 11th Street. However, after he applied for the permit, it was discovered there have been changes to the legislation, which regulates the homes.

To operate an adult home, the owner must have 2,500 feet between them and the next adult family home in the city.

“If they can’t meet the 2,500 feet, then it sounds like the council…would have to grant an exception,” said city administrator Dave DeJongh. Currently, Phelps is roughly 2,100 feet away from a group home on Townline Road.

“We bought this house, intending to do this and now we run into the issue that we didn’t even know there was a group home too close to us,” said Phelps.

DeJongh agreed that it would be nice to know where the homes are located and said the last license that was issued by the city, was in 2012.

“Now that this is in play, I’d like to know all of them again,” said DeJongh.

“Are we supposed to be checking in on these group homes every year?” asked council member Ashley Carothers.

DeJongh says now that they are aware of the situation, the council could review each location yearly. Council member Floyd Hickethier asked if every home is in violation of the new regulations, but DeJongh said those homes would be grandfathered in, Carothers told Phelps that she knows the news is not what he wanted to hear, but that the council’s hands are tied until it’s made clear what the city’s position is.

“Basically, you got to dig more into this, to figure out what’s going on,” said council member Bill Kvapil to De-Jongh.

“There’s not much we can do right now, until we get more information,” said Phelps.

DeJongh also reported on the Xcel Energy relicensing of the hydro dam and said it sounds as though the outdoor recreation plan that was submitted from the city, may be approved.

“There’s an opportunity for communities to get money from them to possibly build fishing piers, river walks, things like that,” said DeJongh. “They’re looking at providing us access to the land that they own along the river, along the Mill Yard Park and the city shop property.”

“That’s amazing,” said Carothers. “That makes me extremely happy.”

She questioned if the access would be a permanent thing or if Xcel would have to review the access again in 40 years, when the relicensing is due. DeJongh says that is still to be determined and that he will find out more information as it comes down the line.

“It’s a process,” he said.