Group Homes Now Permitted in St. Charles

Local service organizations have pushed for changes to local laws that require people operating group homes to obtain a conditional use permit.

Barb Griffith wants St. Charles residents to know people with disabilities are no different from anyone else—they just want to enjoy their homes and socialize with friends. "We want to be good neighbors and we want to promote people that live in their community," said Griffith, CEO of St. Peters-based Community Living.  In the future, a group of people with disabilities will be able to move into a house in a St. Charles neighborhood without having to get special conditional use permit. St. Charles City Council voted on Tuesday to change the city zoning codes to allow "group homes" in the city as a permitted use, meaning they wouldn't have to appear before the city council. It's a change long sought by organizations that provide support to …

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Lindenwood University to Build Storage Facility

Planning and Zoning approved a site plan for facility, a conditional use permit for a

St. Charles Planning and Zoning Comission approved several items during the April 23 meeting. 

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Group Homes Still a Thorny Issue For Communities, Residents

Group homes remain a sometimes controversial issue in St. Charles County. Local governments can't bar them but can restrict how close they are to each other.

Lisa Drier remembers a man who spent years in a nursing home before moving into a group home in Wentzville.  The man hadn’t eaten in a restaurant for years, Drier said the staff learned. “He walked in and said, 'It feels so good to be home,’” said Drier, who is the executive director of the Emmaus Trust Foundation. Emmaus is a St. Charles-based nonprofit organization that operates group homes for disabled people. But group homes in residential areas are a complicated issue issue these days. Some area municipalities have laws that limit the number of group homes by requiring them to be a certain distance apart.  Others require group homes to obtain a special conditional use permit from the city.  Some residents have protested putting group …

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Council Gives Emmaus the Nod for Group Homes in St. Charles

City approves conditional use permits for homes for developmentally disabled.

The St. Charles City Council during its meeting Tuesday unanimously approved six conditional use permits for Emmaus Homes to continue operating six group homes for developmentally disabled residents. The six homes could serve up to 23 developmentally disabled people in the city: The city became aware the homes already were operating when it approved a conditional use permit for another Emmaus-run home at 3345 Town and Country Lane. Other cities in St. Charles County have passed “density” requirements, banning group homes from locating within a certain number of feet from one another. Those cities include O’Fallon and St. Peters. However, at past meetings some residents had spoken out against issuing permits for the homes. Some said the …

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Faith Matters

Residents at Emmaus Homes Teach Lessons in Love

Advent is a four-week period before Christmas when the church takes time to wait, anticipate and prepare for the birth of Jesus. The author reflects on the meaning of Advent in light of recent local news.

For many Christians, the four weeks before Christmas are considered the season of Advent, a word that means “coming.” The traditional themes for these four weeks of preparation prior to Christmas are hope, peace, joy and love. After four months of preaching each Sunday at Emmaus Homes West Campus, I know much more about these majestic themes of faith than I did before. Hope Bobby asks each Sunday, “When’s Christmas?” He doesn’t want to miss it. That’s edge-of-your-chair anticipation. It’s that hope and waiting for Jesus’ birth wrapped up in a few words. This is holy expectation, of the hope that the Holy One of God, Jesus was and is, and the hope for this world that Jesus brings with his birth. “When’s Christmas?” “It’s Dec. 25, Bobby, a …

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Faith Matters

A Ministry of Love and Joy

Rev. Joan Jones has been the chaplain at Emmaus Homes in St. Charles for 13 years. It is a ministry of calm compassion, a call to love the people, and joy every day.

The Rev. Joan Jones is chaplain at Emmaus Homes in St. Charles. She began March 1, 1998, having moved from the east coast and parish ministry in churches in New York and Pennsylvania. “I was geared for the parish,” Jones said. “This was all new.” Emmaus Homes is a place of the spirit. Its stated mission is, in part, “to enhance the quality of life for adults of all beliefs who have cognitive, intellectual and other developmental disabilities.”   The first Emmaus campus, founded in 1893, used the former seminary of the Evangelical Synod of the West in Marthasville, MO. That location is Emmaus Homes West. Emmaus Homes in St. Charles or Emmaus Homes East, began in 1901. That is 110 years in the St. Charles community. Both places continue the …

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Local Group Home Moves Closer to Being a Reality

Celebration House aims to help women break cycle of addiction.

Despite a few setbacks, a planned group home for women recovering from addiction is back on track to open, perhaps in a matter of weeks. The two-story house set in a residential area of St. Charles was slated to have opened as early as a year ago. Conditional use permits were acquired in October 2009 but problems finding a contractor to do modifications put the project behind schedule. "There were several that did produce bids but they weren't up to code so we had to go back and ask for an extension of our year's permit," said Wilma Carr, spiritual director of Celebration House. Carr said a contractor has since been acquired and the structure, which will house four clients and a resident manager when complete, could be in use by the end of…

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