|
| Permits
Issued for Gay, Lesbian Retirement Home Palms of Manasota will include 24 single-family homes, 44 apartments and a 20-unit assisted living community. A retired professor received permits Tuesday to build a housing complex in northern Manatee County that will cater to gay and lesbian retirees. Palms of Manasota will include 24 single-family homes, 44 apartments and a 20-unit assisted-living facility on 22 acres at 220 49th Street E., also known as Experimental Farm Road. "We have permits in hand as of this morning," Bill Laing, 64, the property owner and developer, said Tuesday. "Now we can start building." Laing, who is gay, said he has customers lined up as word spreads that he is crating a complex welcoming homosexuals. "I just want to live a nice comfortable retirement with people with similar interest as me," said Laing, a retired psychology professor at Suffolk Community College on Long Island, N.Y. "We don't want to be exclusive," he said. "We want a place for everyone who is without prejudice... (but) I question whether people will want to live here unless they are gay or lesbian. "We have quite a number of reservations already," Laing said. "So far, they are all professionals. They are older, retired, professional people." Buyers will not purchase property but the right to live in homes or apartments and later receive care in the assisted-living facility, Laing said. The first homes should be finished in six months. Laing intends to request county rezoning to allow a 25-bed nursing home on the site. He also wants to build a facility to house babies with AIDS who do not have parents. Laing moved into a house on the site two months ago and will live there until he builds a new home there. Neighbors have been nice, he said, and he expects no problems from them or others. "I don't anticipate problems at all. You're getting a lot of retires here. What kind of threat are we to anybody?" Laing said. He said he hopes Palms of Manasota residents will become contributors to the community," he said. "I want to change the way people perceive gays and lesbians; not by talking, but by doing." Internet Note: Details in this article about ownership at the Palms of Manasota reflect their status at the date of this article's publication, and differ from the current facts. Please refer the rest of this website, particularly the Homes, Villas and Visitors Center sections for facts about life at the Palms of Manasota today. |