Board approves rest home expansion

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Operator plans to better serve patients at an additional campus-style setting

By Linwood Outlaw III -- loutlaw@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- A local woman has received permission from the Warren County Board of Supervisors to expand a rest home she has operated for more than a decade in an effort to offer more congenial living arrangements for patients and create jobs in the area.

The supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to grant Shelly L. Cook-Knighting's request for a conditional-use permit to build a rest home for clients ages 55 and older on 14.27 acres of agriculturally zoned property in the Fork Magisterial District. Supervisors Chairman Archie A. Fox abstained from the vote.

Cook-Knighting owns the Loving Arms Rest Home across from the site on Lee Burke Road, and essentially wants to expand the facility and run it as a traditional campus setting. The supervisors approved Cook-Knighting's application on the condition that the facility primarily serve the elderly, and chronically ill or convalescent adult patients.

"A lot of what I found was that other [nearby] communities such as Strasburg and Winchester are offering these [type of adult care-oriented] communities, and our residents are going there," Cook-Knighting said.

The expansion will consist of adding five 21,500- to 30,700-square-foot buildings that will each contain 12 residences. Cook-Knighting has said she wants the facility to offer not only suites, but also "apartment-style living." A community center and walking trail system will also be added to the facility, resources Cook-Knighting says are greatly needed.

"Our community really has no safe walking area," Cook-Knighting said. "One of the things that I saw we were losing in clientele is a lot of our people were going to other facilities that offered a more campus-style [environment]. They wanted to have a lifestyle in a central community."

One resident who spoke during a public hearing on the project said he didn't object to Cook-Knighting's blueprint, but questioned how any increased traffic generated by the development would affect the surrounding area, particularly Airport Road and Lee Burke Road. The site will have commercial entrances on Va. 618 and is expected to draw less than 250 vehicle trips per day, according to an impact study for the expansion, which will be privately funded.

"Certainly, every trip you add to the road is going to impact the level of service," County Administrator Douglas P. Stanley said.

Cook-Knighting said Loving Arms officials want to begin construction within the next six to eight months. Loving Arms originally opened in 1998 and offers Alzheimer's and dementia care, and on-site rehabilitation therapy. Cook-Knighting said expanding the facility is necessary in order to put Loving Arms in a better position to serve a growing population of elderly patients with medical needs.

"In order to stay viable in the future market as a business, Loving Arms must grow and change with market demands. The market is currently being driven by the Boomers and the face of health care is changing and emerging differently," Cook-Knighting says in a statement of justification for the expansion.

About 40 full-time and five part-time employees are proposed as part of the expansion, as are concierge services, wellness nursing and nurse assistants.