After more than six years of delays, Atlanta’s Ronald McDonald House charity is almost ready to move forward with plans to add more space at its facility on Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
Almost. The Sandy Springs City Council still needs to approve the zoning changes, and might do so at its Dec. 6 meeting.
The project has been talked about since before Sandy Springs became a city, and the plans have survived lawsuits from nearby property owners, a bad economy and developments in medicine that have changed the way the home supports families living there.
The current house at 5420 Peachtree Dunwoody can hold 11 families. Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities (ARMH) wants to demolish the current structure and replace it with housing for 31 families.
Fulton County approved the plans in 2005, but neighbors opposed to the project sued. ARMH ultimately won.
Kim Cunningham, vice president of operations for ARMH, said families using the current facility will still have an affordable place to stay while the new homes are built.
“We have partnerships with a lot of different hotels and property owners,” she said.
ARMH’s attorney, Ellen Smith, told the Sandy Springs City Council at its Nov. 15 meeting that the extra room is badly needed.
“Almost from the start, the house has been too small to meet the demand,” Smith said. The council still needs to approve the zoning changes before the project can proceed.
The council deferred approving the zoning changes until its Dec. 6 meeting to give the city’s planning commission more time to review the latest revisions to the plans. Smith supported that decision.
Families staying at the Ronald McDonald House pay $20 per night while their children receive treatment at nearby hospitals, though no family is turned way if it can’t pay. In addition to the Sandy Springs facility, there is another Ronald McDonald House near Emory University. ARMH expects to assist 2,000 families this year.
Cunningham and Smith said the new property plans also address the concerns of residents along Clementstone Drive who want more green space between their homes and the new facility.
Cunningham said the new Ronald McDonald House will cost more than $10 million. Once the plans are final, the charity hopes to start raising the money by the end of 2012. Cunningham said if everything goes according to plan, the project could be finished in 2013 or 2014.
As history shows, nothing about the project so far has gone according to plan. Councilwoman Karen Meinzen McEnerny said she thinks this time, things will be different.
“There’s wide support in the community and no opposition,” McEnerny said. “It’s a project that stands on its own. They’re meeting a critical need.”
