If you have aging parents who still want to live on their own -- but need you close by -- there's a new alternative to nursing home care.
Dubbed "granny pods," there are several companies that produce pre-fab "tiny houses" -- some specially designed with high-tech features that assist senior citizens with everyday tasks.
One company that manufactures the backyard homes is MEDCottage, a Blacksburg, Va., company. These high-tech homes are marketed as an alternative to nursing homes, and come equipped with all the amenities -- from defibrillators to pill dispensers -- you'd find in a hospital. The tiny backyard homes, which can be hooked up to the main house's water, sewer and power lines, range in price from $40,000 to upward of $100,000.
But can these cottages work on Staten Island?
The major obstacle seems to be New York City's zoning regulations, and small lot sizes.
"This concept is great. The problem is the zoning," said Claire Bisignano Chesnoff, broker/owner of the New Dorp-based Claire Properties, and president of the Staten Island Board of Realtors.
"Staten Island would never permit this type of building because each type of zoning needs specific footage for side yards, back yards, etc. The space these homes would occupy is larger than the size of the tiny homes, which could not pass zoning laws on Staten Island. I actually had a property for sale that would have been perfect for a tiny home, but even the most creative architect couldn't get around the law," she added.
Even if a zoning change was allowed, it would take many city approvals for granny pods to exist on Staten Island.
"If someone wanted to have this on Staten Island, the New York City Department of Buildings would get involved and they would want to know about everything from plumbing to electric and sewer," said Jon Salmon, broker/owner of Salmon Real Estate in Castleton Corners.
Some Realtors said many of the Island's seniors wouldn't be happy living in a granny pod.
"Our seniors are pretty active and I don't see that these people will want a studio. It looks like a glorified shed," said Laura Volsario, a Realtor with Gateway Arms Realty in St. George.
16 comments:
Glorified shed? I see families of Central Americans moving into them in the backyards of Queens. Better than where they came from.
Developers now seem to be taking ideas from JR Tolkien now.
Well if they can't zone any space to make a modern day Shire, they can just put the elderly in a micro unit on the future Rikers Gardens
"What for you need 'granny pod'? I build 8 bedroom palace on Jewel Avenue to fit granny, great granny, and whole village!"
They are already in use in Flushing. Look at some of the garages in back of the multi family /single homes. You will see people going in and out of them all day long. A baby stroller or two and a trash can sitting next to an installed doorway on a garage and a power cord running overhead into the garage all make it obvious that people are living in them. But nobody sees this?
And what do you do with it when Granny dies shortly thereafter from a broken heart after being stuck into an over glorified garden shed???
I imagine that it could then be rented to a large Syrian refugee family...
(Yes - sometimes I talk to myself.)
Granny Shulman would've even be able to fit her fat ass into one of these, let alone have any room for that rotting bitch's ego.
The mere concept on granny pods is so disturbing it's funny.
Affordable housing
Are we forgetting people pay handsomely to live in equivalent square footage in Manhattan? Also much of the elderly do end up two to a room in a nursing facility at some point in their lives, so why is the pod not dignified?
Granny shed for 2-3 years till she croaks, then a family of 6 for decades after.
They already exist. They're called studio apartments !!
Granny pod...a step before a casket.
Was it Bette Davis that said, "Growing old ain't for sissies"?
What ever happened to "Carousel" for anyone thirty or over?
>What ever happened to "Carousel" for anyone thirty or over?
The Baby Boomers are trying to enact it for anyone under 30.
So when granny dies these are removed? What does that cost?
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