Lahari offers OPAL win-win deal

Lahari Hospice and Respite Care Center has invited the OPAL Community Land Trust to purchase five one-quarter acre house sites in Deer Harbor.

OPAL will host a gathering at the Deer Harbor Community Club Thursday, March 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. to present initial ideas for the property and invite feedback and discussion from the community. Everyone is invited to attend.

Lahari has expressed the wish that the land, which was a gift to the hospice care center, be utilized in a manner that serves the Orcas community in general and the Deer Harbor community in particular. If OPAL is able to purchase the lots — priced comparably to lots OPAL has purchased in Eastsound — Lahari will use the sales proceeds to establish an endowment for its hospice and respite care operation.

Lahari provides services at the facility in Deer Harbor and at people's homes on the island. In addition to hospice, it provides respite care for periods of 3-5 days. Lahari has been a non-profit organization since 1994, and it completed construction of the building in 2003.

Lisa Byers, executive director of OPAL, is excited about the prospect of bringing permanently affordable OPAL houses to Deer Harbor. OPAL will analyze the feasibility of the project.

“We have engaged Fred Klein as our architect to complete preliminary designs for five low-profile, single story houses to nestle into the hillside with as little disruption to the land as possible. Fred was the architect of the Lahari Hospice building and also of our first neighborhood of OPAL homes; his knowledge of affordable building practices, combined with a strong interest in low-impact housing construction, will be reflected in the low-profile homes,” Byers said.

She is hopeful that OPAL will be able to provide affordable housing in a location other than the village of Eastsound. "Deer Harbor is another location on the island with commercial activity. It is important to us that OPAL provide housing throughout the island," Byers said.

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