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Council Paves Way for Senior Living Complex at Sandia View Academy |
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Written by Jeff Radford
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Sunday, 10 May 2009 |
Without actually approving it, the Village Council has cleared the way
for developers to take over the old Sandia View Academy for a senior
living complex.
At their April 14 meeting, councillors approved changes in the
Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance to allow senior living facilities on
property zoned for municipal use.
However, that use would be controlled by a special use permit.
That sets up the situation sought by investment partners David Dronet
and David Abell who have offered to buy 22 acres of the Sandia View
Academy property now under three separate zoning categories. Part of
the land has A-1 zoning for agricultural-residential use, part is zoned
M for municipal, and part is C-zoned for commercial activities.
Presumably the next step is for the partners to bring to the Planning
and Zoning Commission a proposal to change the zoning for all parcels
to M.
If that zone change is approved (by the council after the P&Z
board’s recommendation), the developers would submit a site development
plan along with a request for a special use permit.
Only with all those approvals and a waste water discharge permit from
the N.M. Environment Department could Dronet begin remodeling the old
dormitories into assisted living units, upgrade the kitchen, set up
medical facilities and begin renting to seniors.
As the developers explained earlier, “independent living” units
—essentially apartments for elderly people— would be constructed in a
later phase.
David Dronet indicated March10 his project would need to rent to about 150-200 people to be feasible.
As might be expected, council members and concerned citizens worried
that approving such a project would undermine the Village’s maximum
one-dwelling-per-acre rule.
But acting against the recommendations from the P&Z commission, the
council adopted Ordinance 09-003 on April 14 after approving a string
of last-minute amendments to it.
Those amendments impose limits on the residential density of any future
senior living facilities on M-zoned land and require that such projects
have at least 15 acres.
The Village’s Zoning Ordinance provision for senior living facilities
on property zoned for municipal uses contains a provision that such a
facility shall not exceed more than one resident per 5,445 square feet
based on the size of the entire property.
That was calculated to result in a maximum density of eight residents per acre.
Councillors also raised the entry age from a proposed 55 to 62 for any senior living facility in an M-zone.
The Planning and Zoning Commission’s objections to Ordinance 09-003
came before councillors added those amendments and others. When the
council vote came, the final amended ordinance passed 4-to-2 with
Councillors Pat Clauser and John Alsobrook voting no.
Both Clauser and Alsobrook expressed several objections, especially the
scale of the proposal and allowing a major commercial venture on land
zoned for municipal uses.
In Corrales’ Zoning Ordinance, the M-zone category is not restricted to
just municipal government uses as implied. Instead by definition it
includes churches, schools… and now senior living facilities.
The new ordinance lists a set of “guidelines” for the Planning and
Zoning Commission to follow in ruling on requests for special use
permits. Those include such factors as providing access from a major
thoroughfare, off-street parking and garbage bins, provisions for storm
water drainage, avoidance of noise, glare and odor and “general
compatibility with existing adjacent properties.”
The operator of an existing assisted living facility in Corrales,
Judith Pecho, owner of The Country Oasis on Coronado Road, had written
to councillors opposing the Dronet project. She pointed out she had
consistently been denied permission to increase the number of her
resident-patients from five to eight.
“First, I must say that I was very shocked to think that the
Village would consider what amounts to a 200-250 apartment complex for
retired persons. The project is not specific to the number of
beds that would consist of ‘assisted living’ or ‘skilled nursing care,’
so it is impossible to address the issues with specificity. It would
seem that this information should be presented from the onset of
consideration,” Pecho wrote.
“Nonetheless, it would seem that the following comments would be
relevant to any high-density housing because that is what this project
entails. To use the words ‘Assisted Living’ to the whole project
would be misleading in that only a smaller portion of the development
would be dedicated to persons needing that level of care.
“You may or may not know that the State of New Mexico, Department of
Health, Licensing and Certification, licenses Residential
Care Facilities, that is, they only inspect and license the portion of
the building that is dedicated to ‘assisted living residents’ or
‘skilled nursing residents.’
“The apartments that would constitute … retirement housing would
be licensed by the Village of Corrales which I believe would need to
write their own regulations and provide periodic inspections, the same
as the City of Albuquerque licenses the same in
Albuquerque. There are no state regulations that would apply to
retirement housing.
“Rentors regulations would need to be developed that would protect
those residents in that portion of the building from any violation of
their rights pertaining to lessees.
“Would social workers be required by the Village to provide
counsel and oversight to any resident who lives in the
apartments? Who would be called in to provide this service?
Is the Village ready to provide ancillary personnel to serve this
housing development?
“Most all retirement housing developments do not provide any health
care supervision over those residents, particularly not outside their
contractual agreements. You may wish to review a copy of the
contract given the lessees the entity that is requesting this permit.
“My experience with elderly coming from these retirement apartments has
been that supervision of medical and health needs is often overlooked
until a crisis makes the need for medical treatment unavoidably obvious
and then needed placement to assisted living or nursing home is finally
addressed.
“Families or responsible parties must contract with added fees to even
monitor blood pressure, for instance. Often development of severe
edema and a subsequent fall is the first trigger to managers of the
retirement apartments to notify families to get the resident into their
physician. Often higher level of care is not always available in the
‘assisted living’ or ‘skilled nursing home’ portion of the
complex and therefore, services are often obtained outside the complex.
“Review of the proposed development focusing on the term ‘assisted
living’ is foolhardy, since the majority of the development would be to
provide housing to retired persons who would like to live in a
community. Consider that in such a proposal that you are primarily
considering approving high density housing, period. Take the
‘assisted living’ terminology out of the equation entirely to be
realist in considering this exception.
“As far as the anticipation of tax revenues, gross receipts taxes are
paid only on the service side, not the room and board side of the
retirement housing.
“You might be expecting greater tax revenue than would be actually
paid. The assisted living portion would pay greater taxes overall, but
this could also be accomplished with scattered ‘assisted living homes’
throughout the village, which could give more personalized care.
“Rio Rancho has two tetirement communities that are on the edge of
Corrales, as some of you may not know, one-quarter mile north of the
Meadowlark Senior Center, in a residential area. Acontilado Vista has
more than 220 apartments. Sandia Springs has 120, with an assisted
living unit and a memory unit for Alzheimer’s residents. I
understood that they currently have vacancies and another development
of such large scale would negatively impact the business of those two
facilities,” Pecho wrote.
“The amount of traffic has been downplayed in my opinion. Senior
residents often have their own cars and drive themselves to shop,
socialize with friends, go to medical visits. Their families also
drive into the area to visit. The staff required for this development
is certainly more than the 60-80 that was represented at the last
meeting.
“You can expect to have three shifts of staff from administration, the
kitchen staff, laundry staff, housekeeping staff, direct care staff,
maintenance staff, delivery of food and supplies, sales
representatives, medical and social work staff, hospice staff to
include nurses and care givers who bathe residents, physical
therapists, occupational therapists, nurse specialists, speech
therapists to serve the assisted living portion as well as the
retirement housing units.
“The fact that this proposed development is north of the business area
of Corrales, most traffic will be moving through the full length of the
city making a huge impact on an already stressed rural community road
system. Obviously, traffic would be immensely increased on
Meadowlark Lane, a problem traffic area already by history.
“You can expect a huge demand on water and septic for commercial
kitchen and commercial laundry, and a large amount of chemicals needed
when serving a large number of people for processing disinfection of
dishes and laundry to prevent spread of infection. This is
not required in smaller assisted living homes. This is a stress on our
aquifer and septic processing systems.”
Pecho noted that the Dronet proposal presents “a huge increase of
responsibility for Anthony Martinez and the rest of his staff at the
Fire Department of Corrales. He gets very concerned with his
responsibilities for my small five-bed assisted living. Has
anyone asked him how he feels about having fire and emergency
responsibility for a 200-250 bed retirement community, and ill-defined
size of assisted living section?
“It seems that it is far beyond his capacity of his department
for this development and serve the rest of the community. Where
are you going to get the water for firefighting a huge
development? Where will you get the water for such a huge project?
“It seems that taking on a huge congregate care community when there
are already two such developments barely a mile and one half from
Corrales Road and Meadowlark, in Rio Rancho. It does not seem that
Corrales has a need for such a huge development, and so it seems
reasonable to expect they will draw residents from Rio Rancho and
Albuquerque. Should Corrales be considering a project of such scope.
For whose benefit will it be?
“I have to admit that I feel a bit snubbed in that my ‘assisted living
home’ that has been here for eight years is held down to five
residents. One can only make a living if you live with the residents
which I have done for eight years and I am now hoping to find
someone else to carry the torch.
“Most persons looking at my home to buy as a business state they must
be licensed for at least eight to ten residents to make a decent
living. While I have not enriched myself so much in monetary terms
operating this business with a limit of five, I have enjoyed seeing how
much people can improve when there is bonding and quality of care.
“I have followed some of my residents in other facilities when I could
no longer manage safely with them and have seen them decline quickly
because ‘quality’ is simply a word they put in their brochures,
not a real adverb as it is in a smaller environment.
“I would like my facility census to be expanded to eight residents so that I might sell my facility. How about considering that?
“It seems the project such as was proposed on your 22-acre site is
simply surreal to consider. It makes no sense to me given all the
issues.…”
Councillor Jim Fahey responded to Pecho as follows. “What is being
considered is an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance. Any facility would
have to apply for a special use permit and then submit to a review for
the use of the property by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
“A site development plan would be necessary, approval by NMED, traffic
impact study, verification of water availability by the State Engineer,
and, if the facility were an assisted living facility, it would have to
pass all requirements by the state and federal government required
[for] such facilities.
“This is not an ordinance approving any kind of apartment complex. By
approving this ordinance, there is actually more control and review of
what is developed in the village.” |
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