Thursday, February 11, 2010
Health units win political backing
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would ease the process for installing the units in yards.
The latest from The Ticker blog
A Salem company looking to build medical modular homes for the back yard has found some political support to bring its business plan one step closer to reality.
When the company N2Care LLC unveiled its plan for the MEDCottage in August its founders said one of the biggest obstacles would be changing zoning ordinances to allow the unit to be placed in the yards of residential neighborhoods.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, introduced a bill in January that would allow temporary family health care structures to be placed in any single-family residential zoning district without a special-use permit.
The bill specifies that the structure would have to be placed in the yard of a caregiver and be used to provide care for a mentally or physically impaired person.
The bill was referred to the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns and is scheduled to be discussed by subcommittee today. If it is approved out of subcommittee it could be taken up by the full committee Friday.
"It's a critical week for us as far as getting legislators' support," said Susan Conn, director of operations for N2Care. "Basically this bill will ease the accessibility to it [MEDCottage]."
It already has bipartisan support with Del. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, also listed as a patron of the bill.
N2Care is working on the development and design of the MEDCottage and trying to raise money to build a prototype, Conn said.
The state-of-the-art medical mobile home would be geared toward the elderly and the aging population.
N2Care projects that its MEDCottage could generate 80 new jobs with above-average pay and that within three years retail and support services could generate twice that number of jobs. The company's business plan is to reach $10 million in sales over five years.
