At a specially scheduled meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday, it issued conditional use permitting for a proposed senior living and assisted care center.
The center would be at the site of Sourdough Lodge, which is between Peninsula and Berger streets and is currently zoned light industrial. Before its sale last year the lodge operated under a conditional use permit, which would need to be applied for by the new owners as well.
Shannon Bosdell and Daniel Blake are working to convert the lodge into Harbor House Assisted Living Center and Senior Housing. Five long-term care beds would be maintained among the building’s facilities, with 11 additional rooms allotted for elderly residents. The site would include a restaurant-style kitchen, nursing staff, a community room, and transportation options for residents. The two partners would also live on-site, along with their spouses.
The item had appeared already at a regular meeting on January 5, but was moved to its own special workshop held on the 12th after prospective neighbors weighed in with a variety of concerns. Mainly, these were increased traffic flow and parking on surrounding residential roads, pet- and noise-related issues, and legal liabilities. After much discussion, the commission scheduled one last meeting to consider the proposal with certain provisos.
In order of presentation, the amendment items would require all pertinent state certification and licensing, addition of a dog run or break area on site, two ambulatory entrances as discussed in past meetings, and a minimum of 15 off-street parking spaces provided.
“We entertained all the concerns of the neighbors and tried to address every one of them,” said Don McConachie, acting chair for the commission that evening.
One area still left unresolved was the question of liability. Consulting with the city’s attorney, economic development director Carol Rushmore reported he had been unable to weigh in on the liabilities of individual homeowners. In general though, she said his opinion was that property owners could be liable if a pedestrian injured themselves on that property if the owners were found to be negligent in some fashion. Bosdell echoed that opinion, after speaking with his own legal counsel.
The commission ran into some trouble with parliamentary procedure in the permit’s passing. Commissioner Duke Mitchell moved to adopt the permit, but was unwilling to add any of the proposed amendments to his motion.
“I don’t think they’re viable concerns, personally,” Mitchell commented. He felt the added requirement for a dogwalk was unnecessary, and that the future proposed use of the facility did not differ substantially from its previous use as a lodge. “I don’t see that much change between what you’re doing now and what they were doing before,” he said to Blake and Bosdell.
Eventually the commission determined another of its members could propose the amendments, which could then be adopted into the main item by majority vote. Roland Howell did so, and commissioners agreed to the addition unanimously. The amended permit was then issued by the same 4-0 count.
Neighbors seemed agreeable to the items. The only one standing up to speak, Chris Guggenbickler thought the amendments addressed their concerns for the most part.
“I think this was a compromise made by the neighborhood,” he said. “If we do this, I think things will move forward, and it won’t be that big of a deal.”
Harbor House is still on track to open by its announced date of April 1.
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