Residents in Scottsdale neighborhood fighting proposed care home inside gated community

A battle is brewing in a Scottsdale neighborhood over a proposed memory-care group home that would be built inside their gated community.

A memory care group home with 10 patients, two in-house staff members, lots of workers and families coming and going at all hours of the night. With the Phoenix housing market booming now and property values all over the Valley on the rise, a group home is a nightmare that no one wants.

On Tuesday, there were hundreds of people at the Ancala HOA meeting, and many of them were hearing about this for the first time, and not too pleased that this has been in the works for six months.

"There certainly is a concern about that," said Jerry Greene.

"Certainly it's an issue that could affect the values of the other homes," said Steve Lambrecht.

Longtime residents in the highly sought-after Ancala community are concerned about a piece of property well past the gates.

"Ancala was built with very narrow streets, no sidewalks, no real place to park, no lights at night, and you're bringing in what could be people walking around unknowing of their whereabouts," said Lambrecht.

The property was sold in February to a group called Valley Memory Care, LLC, an organization that only formed back in October, all with the intention of building a group home that will house 10 people.

"These are the four people who are the owners," said Lambrecht. "When we tried to visit one of their homes today. No luck."

It’s essentially a business right in the middle of a gated community, but how does that work? The Americans with Disabilities Act says that the HOS cannot deny making "reasonable accommodations". It’s a loophole that’s a lot more common than you think, and there have been cases in Colorado, Utah and California.

But will anything actually get built inside the gates of Scottsdale?

"I think that's a very fair question. I'd say from what I've heard here I'd say maybe it's 50/50 right now," said Greene.

"I don't think they realize how much it's going to cost to excavate it," said Lambrecht. "I built homes in there, you can easily rack up 10,000 a day, 30 days. You're talking 300 grand. Just to get the lot ready. Now, why did you just go buy another lot?"

FOX 10 tried to reach all parties involved in this situation, without any luck. The HOA also asked our crews to leave the area.