Senior living developments proliferate in Oconee | News | oconeeenterprise.com – Oconee Enterprise
In the heart of Watkinsville and in the northern boundaries of the county, citizens will have a number of senior living options in the near future.
“Oconee County has earned a reputation of being an ideal place to retire,” according to a rezone application of a continuing care retirement facility off U.S. 78 that was approved in September.
That development, which will be built out by 2027 across from Prince Avenue Christian School, will include 517 residential units. An adjacent 179,000 square feet of commercial space called The Market at Meadowlands will be anchored by a grocery store. The independent and assisted living community will be called The Village at Meadowlands.
At the beginning of 2021, the BOC approved a request for The Landing, also off U.S. 78, to add independent living cottages behind its assisted living facility.
The Landing opened last year, along with Presbyterian Village Athens. In nearby Athens-Clarke County, Manor Lake Assisted Living and Memory Care also opened its doors in 2020.
In February 2020, the BOC gave the go-ahead on a continuing-care retirement facility called Celebration Village to be built at the end of the Oconee Connector adjacent to Home Depot. The development will consist of 76 active adult bungalows, 44 independent living cottages, 60 independent living villas, 102 concierge living apartments, 67 assisted living apartments, 29 memory care suites and 20 personal care units.
In 2021, two additional senior living facilities were approved in or around Watkinsville. The first is a 100-bed assisted living complex on the north side of Moreland Heights Road.
The second will be a 60-unit building at the intersection of Water and Durham street. Waters Walk will be independent senior living that employs tax credits from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to offer units that are lower than the residential market rate. The mostly three-story complex (it’s four stories in the back) will house residents ages 55 and older.
The most recent rezone in December allows for additional units to a previously dormant continuing care retirement community along Langford Drive and Langford Estates Place. The Vineyard Athens Senior Community will have 251 residential units spanning 346,088 square feet.
Oconee County also is home to St. Gabriel of Athens Assisted Living, Highland Hills Village off Jennings Mill Road, Magnolia Estates Senior Living off Virgil Langford Road and High Shoals Health and Rehabilitation.
For more on this story, see the Dec. 30 edition of The Oconee Enterprise, on sale now at convenience stores and grocery stores and newspaper boxes throughout Oconee County. To subscribe, call (706) 769-5175 or visit the tab on our website.
