DELAWARE — Sometimes life knocks people off course, and they need a little help getting back on their feet. A new Goodwill transitional home planned for Delaware aims to provide just that.
Delaware City Council approved a development plan Monday for a transitional home for men at 21 Vergon Drive in the Greenwood Commons/Flats at Sugar Run Planned Mixed-Use Overlay.
The development won’t keep that address for long, though. Council also voted Monday to rename Vergon Drive as Rainstone Drive.
T&R Properties are the developers behind the 16-room project that’ll sit on a little more than one acre. In 2023, T&R received approval for a zoning map amendment that created the roughly 60-acre Planned Mixed-Use Overlay that encompasses the three developments.
In the map below, the area shaded red shows where Goodwill’s facility will be built. Dark blue marks the under-construction Greenwood Commons apartments, while light blue shows the Flats at Sugar Run.
The Goodwill transitional home is the last section of T&R’s development inside the zoning district.
“We’re all about helping people who’ve had challenges in their life,” said Matthew Tway, Goodwill’s vice president of community development for Marion, Morrow, Union, Crawford and Delaware counties.
“The point of this housing unit is to help folks get back, reestablished into work, living and to help keep them from going back to jail.”
Tway added that the programming “won’t be a burden to taxpayers” as Goodwill will be paying for and supplying all the programming at the facility.
“We’re going to be providing wraparound services,” Tway said. “It’s going to be work-related stuff and other programs to help them get back established to life, and to become better citizens.”
Part of the city’s zoning code states that permitted uses for the facility include “short-term residential with 24-hour supportive services and supervision.”
More about the site
Residents, staff and others will access the 5,800-square-foot building off of Rainstone Drive. The site will feature 16 parking spaces as well as an outdoor patio.
Additionally, all 16 rooms will have en suite bathrooms, and one bedroom will be ADA accessible.
T&R proposed a “robust” landscaping plan with screening shrubs, foundation plantings and street trees along Lake Street, according to city documents.
However, Councilwoman Linsey Griffith flagged the number of burning bushes the developers had in mind, citing how invasive the shrubs are and not ecologically friendly to the rest of the city’s greenery.
T&R Properties founder, CEO and President of Development Ron Sabatino said he favors burning bushes but was open to Griffith’s recommendations for additional landscaping around the property.
According to city documents, the site will also include a sidewalk along the east side of the access drive connecting to sidewalks being installed along U.S. Route 42, as well as a three-rail fence around the open space east of the building.
