Therapy Farm Up for OK
3/24/2003
Lou Castriota, Jr. is optimistic his Leg Up Farm project eventually will receive $4.5 million from the state to help pay for construction.
Until then, he plans to move forward in other ways, such as requesting a zoning special exception from the East Manchester Zoning Hearing Board on Thursday.
"Since our project is unique, there's really no specific zoning that fits us, because we're an outpatient facility in a farm environment," said Castriota. "So we have to go before them and ask for an exception."
The area is zoned for residential use, and Castriota needs a special exception for the facility, which is considered a health and welfare institution.
Leg Up Farm will offer traditional therapies -- physical, speech and occupational -- as well as such less-traditional therapies as hippotherapy (horseback riding), aquatherapy, massage therapy and sensory play.
In 2001, landowner Barbara Warren offered a portion of her 200-acre property on North Sherman Street Extended as a home for the proposed 77,000 square-foot facility.
Castriota, chairman of Leg Up Farm's board of directors, has said the facility was inspired by his 7 year-old daughter, Brooke, who has mitochondrial disease, similar to cerebral palsy. As he sought various therapies for Brooke, he realized how much easier it would be if the various types of therapy were available in the same location.
Castriota hopes to open the facility in 2004, after raising $4.5 million in a capital campaign and receiving a $4.5 million match from the state.
Leg Up Farm had been slated to receive the money through the previous state administration, but with newly elected Gov. Ed Rendell in office, "We have to present our case to the new administration to get the money released," Castriota said.
"It's in a sense reacquainting Leg Up Farm with new people," he said. "I've already started that process with key people in the governor's office."
By TED CZECH, The York Dispatch/Sunday News