TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – Tippecanoe County Commissioners have approved plans to build a housing complex behind TSC Elementary School that will be dedicated to independent adults with disabilities and the families who support them.
News 18 previously reported that Tippecanoe County Commissioners have offered 40 acres of land to the nonprofit Oasis Community for future development. At their July 15 meeting, the commissioners approved plans for the Oasis Community neighborhood.
Rob Eyman, president of Oasis Communities, said he has been working on planning and designing the area for the past four and a half years.
The area will be a fully gated community exclusively for independent adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the families who want to support them. Eyman said the goal is to eliminate social isolation for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Imagine living in a community where every house is your home,” he said. “It opens up avenues for relationships that didn’t exist before. It opens up avenues to do things that you and I took for granted.”
The homes in this area are designed to face inwards, creating a gathering place for residents, and there will also be exercise areas, sports courts, playgrounds and an enrichment center for public use.
“If you need a sensory room, if you need some kind of therapy, if you need anything else, you’re living in a neighborhood that has everything you need,” Eyman said.
The neighborhood is located directly behind Burnett Creek Elementary School.
Tippecanoe Schools Superintendent Scott Hamback said the area will provide plenty of opportunities for students to interact with new people in the future.
“Students and teachers could walk up to this facility and have reading buddies. Maybe they could have art clubs,” he enthused. “I think it opens up some great opportunities.”
Eyman said after receiving the $10 million, the goal is to break ground in September 2025. Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh said commissioners are looking forward to seeing how the development will improve the area.
“I think it’s really wonderful. It’s going to be a very unique community and I think it’s going to be embraced,” he said.
Eyman said the goal is to have it all completed over the next three to four years.
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