Senior housing concerns mount in Logansport

LOGANSPORT, Ind. (WLFI) - An ordinance passed by the Logansport city council now allows senior housing communities to be built inside downtown buildings. Logansport Planning Department Executive Director Arin Shaver said in order to keep commercial businesses in the downtown area the planning department and commission asked the council to restrict residents to the second floor and up in those buildings.

"The more traffic you have, so by promoting senior housing, we're hoping to get more traffic where businesses can start looking like small grocery stores, small retail shops that are going to help senior citizens," Shaver said.

The restriction had some concerned about the safety of residents in case of a fire. Logansport Fire Chief Mark Strong and Shaver said those concerns were quickly addressed.

"Until you know the design of the building and where they're going to be placed and if it's an old building or a new building how that's going to affect the fire. They need to have their evacuation plans and whatnot," Shaver said.

"We've got two ladder trucks here in town and we've got ground ladders that can even reach that far," Strong said.

Strong said there are already multiple level senior living communities in town. In fact, Miller's Merry Manor behind me is three levels and a couple years ago firefighters had to evacuate all residents and Strong said thanks to evacuation plans everything went well.

"It went really well; everyone was safe and people who were completely wheelchair bound and hospital bound with beds. We didn't have any problem getting everybody out," Strong said.

Strong said if and when senior housing goes into downtown buildings the fire department will educate all residents about fire escape routes.

Shaver said the change to the ordinance was favorably passed by the planning department and commission after getting reassurance from the fire department. It will be reviewed by city council next month.