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ATTACHMENT E <br /> .� VoluntCe1 3 V1 to LICE tcaJ <br /> MINNESOTA <br /> Corporate Support Office <br /> June 10, 2011 <br /> To: Janice Gundlach, City Planner,New Brighton, Minnesota <br /> From: Jim Bettendorf, Director of Housing, Volunteers of America—Minnesota — <br /> Subject: Conforming Special Use as similar use by Residential Reentry Center <br /> Thank you for your recent request for our organizational perspective on how our projected use for the <br /> property located at 1820 Old Highway 8 as a Residential Reentry Center is comparable to the other <br /> special uses you stated are currently allowed under the zoning code.As we understand the situation from <br /> your email,the allowed special uses are institutions such as: clinics,hospitals,sanitariums,convalescent <br /> homes,rest homes,nursing homes,and orphanages. <br /> All of the institutions which you listed provide care and support to their patients and residents. The same <br /> will be true for our Residential Reentry Center. Its core purpose will be to look after the health,well- <br /> being and development of the Center's residents. We are a hybrid of all of the uses you listed,providing <br /> service components of each currently allowed special use. The services we provide in this program <br /> include rehabilitative case management/counseling services with an emphasis on accessing services <br /> needed for addiction, mental health, and permanent housing so that residents may become employed, <br /> reunited with their family and accountable,productive,tax paying members of the community. Services <br /> are provided in a stable, short-term living environment that provides the basic necessities of daily living <br /> such as shelter,meals, health care, utilities,and personal sanitation facilities. Lastly, these rehabilitative <br /> case management/counseling services and basic necessities of daily living are combined with constant <br /> (24-hours, 365-days) staff supervision and monitoring to assure safety, security and program compliance. <br /> Comparable care services are offered in hospitals,sanitariums,convalescent homes, rest homes,nursing <br /> homes, and orphanages. <br /> With regard to our planned use, we estimate its community impact will be less than the listed special uses <br /> in terms of,traffic impact,parking needs, noise, use of city services, etc. The number of residents served <br /> by our program will be consistent with,or less than,the other residential care allowed uses. Our residents <br /> typically do not have regular visitors and are unlikely to have personal transportation needs that would <br /> require high levels of parking. The vehicle traffic generated from our use is expected to be minimal and <br /> would consist primarily of our staff during shift changes. We estimate our impact on traffic and parking <br /> within the adjoining neighborhood will be much lower than that of clinics, hospitals, and <br /> nursing/rest/convalescent homes. We are minimal users of city services since our on-site staff provides <br /> supervision, monitoring and security of residents and works with Federal agencies if law enforcement <br /> services are needed. The need for emergency medical services is highly uncommon for our program and <br /> is estimated to be less than required for health care uses such as nursing and convalescent homes,clinics <br /> and the other special uses geared toward an older population. <br /> I am including a letter of support for our Reentry programs from our current neighbors on the Longfellow <br /> Community Council where our Minneapolis Reentry Center is located. This recommendation <br /> demonstrates that we are a positive,conforming neighborhood use in the communities we currently serve. <br /> We genuinely appreciate your review of our proposed use and your request for our organizational <br /> perspective.There is much more information we could provide to you regarding our service programs <br /> please let us know if we can assist in any further way. <br /> 7625 Metro Boulevard, Minneapolis, MN 55439 I ph.952.945.4000 I fx.952.945.4103 <br /> Making a Difference.Changing Lives." <br /> Serving Minnesota since 1896. I www.voamn.org <br />