MIDDLETOWN >> The Lake County Planning Commission recently approved Hope City’s proposal to demolish the Middletown Central Park Community Center and construct a dormitory to house volunteers that will build houses in the Valley Fire area.
The major use permit for the project was passed unanimously by the commission at its regular meeting on Aug. 25. The seven-day appeal period has now passed, leaving the county to process the building permit, which may take the typical two to three weeks.
“Hope city will be a high priority,” county planning department staffer Mireya Turner said. She did not know when construction is expected to begin, but the non-profit organization has secured a demolition permit for the project.
During the hearing, the project received strong public support, she claimed.
“It was a very straight forward case,” she added. “The building it’s replacing is very old.”
The new building will be 6,000 square feet and will be repurposed as a community center once the recovery period is over, according to the corresponding staff report prepared by Turner. It will house and feed up to 40 volunteers visiting a week at a time.
As previously reported by the Record-Bee, the organization has had hundreds of volunteers visit the county since last year, but due to a lack of housing it is still very far from its goal of rebuilding 120 to 150 homes for those survivors with little to no insurance.
Neither Hope Crisis Response Network CEO Kevin Cox nor Heather Deberry of the Middletown Central Park Association could be reached for comment.
The project’s address is 15299 Central Park Road.
