by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

With the long-discussed Arcadia Senior Living Facility near becoming a reality, an overview of the project at the May 19 Sewanee Community Council meeting sparked widespread concern from residents. The council also revisited the Dog Control Policy and took up complaints about student driving.

President of the Arcadia board George Elliott said a senior living facility in Sewanee had been talked about since the 1950s. In 2013 the Trustees tasked a committee with examining the possibility. In 2017 the concept of a non-university affiliated nonprofit facility took hold, and the Arcadia board formed.

Market research showed the community could support as many as 173 units. The proposed facility at the “test fit” site on the corner of Alabama Avenue and Willie Six Road calls for 138 units (120 independent living, 10 assisted living, and eight memory care). The facility would lease the property from the University. The buy-in fee model would return 80 percent of the cost to the resident or the resident’s estate when the resident moved out or died, with new incoming residents providing the revenue necessary for operation.

Asked how the facility would benefit Sewanee, Elliott argued it would “free-up housing” when faculty and staff retired. A resident insisted most incoming professors could not afford those homes. She also objected to the proposed business model which would “recruit people to live here.”

Elliott acknowledged that usually a senior living facility anticipated drawing residents from people living within 25 miles of the site. Given the demographics of the Sewanee area, “That would not be enough people,” Elliott explained. The facility hoped to draw residents from the nearby metropolitan areas of Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Nashville.

“Why this big [a facility]?” asked council representative Katie Gohn. “This is as small a number as would work according to the research our consultants did,” Elliott insisted. “It could be smaller, but not less than 100.”

A resident cited a typical buy-in cost at a senior living facility as $400,000. Another resident, dismayed by the prospect of such a high cost, said she wanted a place where people who made $15 an hour could retire. Elliott said he could not reveal the “pricing model” as it was not set. The Arcadia Board hopes to establish an endowment to subsidize financially challenged residents.

Elliott agreed a traffic study was needed. One of the features that made the proposed site attractive was “walkability” to central campus and downtown. In response, a resident pointed out both the central campus and downtown were uphill from the proposed site.

Others objected to the lack of a Skilled Care unit and, instead, reliance on outside providers, often located in Nashville or Chattanooga, a long drive.

Although agreeing he was in favor of freeing up housing, council representative Walker Adams said, “It’s too much, too fast.”

Citing the name, “Arcadia at Sewanee,” Gohn said, “There’s this inference that there are amenities here that are good outside the amenities of living in a beautiful, natural place. There is a huge tie to the University. The need arose from people who want to stay in the community, but how does that change when you’re marketing to people in Huntsville, Nashville, and Chattanooga?”

At the March council meeting a committee formed to review the Dog Control Policy. “The committee is divided on the issue of less control or more control,” said Provost Scott Wilson. Sue Scruggs, executive director of Marion Animal Resource Connection, said she frequently received calls and read Sewanee Classified posts about dogs at large. Scruggs proposed Sewanee could again begin to operate a dog pound where stray dogs were detained, and owners could be charged a fee when they claimed their dog.

Discussion followed on whether renovation of the dog pound would require a concrete surface, which would be expensive. Scruggs said from her experience a concrete surface was not necessary.

Gohn commented the current policy already prohibited dogs at large.

Council representative Phil White reminded the community Sewanee had a Dog Park on Lake Cheston Drive where dogs could run and interact with other dogs off leash.

“A lot of the problem has been enforcement,” said committee chair Marilyn Phelps. “My big thing was to have the policy move toward clear enforcement. [The current policy] is very vague, ‘may this, may that,’ rather than what will be done.”

Phelps also brought to the council’s attention residents’ complaints about student drivers speeding and the hazard to pedestrians. According to Phelps, the students ignored pedestrians who signaled them to slow down and sometimes speeded up instead.

“Sewanee wants to provide broadly educated people, but also to make good citizens. That’s always been an important part of the University’s mission,” Phelps said. “Somehow the good citizen part and being considerate of your neighbor has gotten lost in the shuffle.”

“I will raise [the issue] in the session we do with students on ‘living in community,’” said Dean of Students Nicky Campbell. “Most of our students would be mortified to know that’s the way the community feels.”