Lakewood Diversifying Housing Stock, Building ADA-Friendly Homes

LAKEWOOD, OH — The city of Lakewood will be adding a new, handicap-accessible home on Edandola Avenue next summer. Prairie Stone Group is creating a single-family home with a "universally designed" first floor.

“The first floor of this home is going to be ADA accessible but because in residential building there aren’t mandated requirements for things like that I’m really leaning more towards it being called a universally designed home,” Dana Paul, leader of the Prairie Stone Group said. “It’s a home where the first floor will be completely adaptable.”

Paul has experience with apartment buildings and making units accessible. It's that experience that he believes will help him find success with this home.

One of the features that will be present with the Edandola home is, for example, a ramp to enter the home. There will also be a completely accessible master suite.

“This house will be so unique to Lakewood because not many of the current homes here are set up with ramps for wheelchairs or even wide enough doorways to accommodate them,” he said. “We’ve thought about all of that and have even made modifications to things like the sink and the kitchen island that will make them easier to use.”

Lakewood officials have long desired a diversification in available housing stock. The city even runs a page on its website dedicated solely to the development of "21st century" homes.

In fact, Lakewood's City Planner Katelyn Milius has said one of the city's housing goals is supporting a variety of housing options that "meet the needs of a diverse community."

“The proposed house on Edanola provides a living space for a family that may have had to move out of Lakewood or has had to live in a retrofitted old home that was only somewhat accessible,” she said. “We’re really excited to see Dana’s vision come to life, especially the ‘universal design’ features that will make a family’s life a lot easier.”

The city is also looking to create an environmentally friendly home on Lauderdale Avenue. There is currently a request for proposals issued by the city looking for developers that can create an innovative energy efficient home with accessible features.

Photos from City of Lakewood