Residents of the Village Green weren’t pleased when they caught
wind of a plan to develop the adjacent 4-acre parcel of land from a
one-home estate lot into a sprawling medical facility.
Residents of the Village Green weren’t pleased when they caught wind of a plan to develop the adjacent 4-acre parcel of land from a one-home estate lot into a sprawling medical facility.
A team of developers is looking to transform the southwestern corner of Hecker Pass Highway and Santa Teresa Boulevard by building a two-story, 48,200-square-foot nursing facility, a two-story, 9,250-square-foot ambulatory, outpatient surgery center and a one-story, 5,000-square-foot community center for Village Green residents. A single home and several small storage buildings currently occupy the corner.
A community outreach meeting will be held 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Village Green main dining room at 7610 Isabella Way and resident Janet Larner said she’ll be there with bells on.
“The whole aspect of this development is to make big money and they could care less about the quiet and nice enjoyment of the senior population,” she wrote in a letter to the city’s planning department. “It’s an outrage.”
She and many of her fellow residents are concerned with the amount of traffic the project will eventually funnel through what’s supposed to be a quiet neighborhood for retirees, she said.
According to the plans, the only street access to the new facility would be via a driveway on Hecker Pass and a road extending Isabella Way, a private Village Green street.
“I’ll lay down in it first,” Larner said of Isabella Way if the developer tries to turn the street into an access point for the nursing facility. “We do not need the public in here. We cannot handle the traffic.”
In 2001, the city council approved a request by Coastal Rim Properties to develop the Village Green property. The developer agreed to restrict the adjacent estate lot so that it could be occupied by only a residential dwelling. The developer is now requesting a zone change to develop the lot with the medical center. The developer has submitted two applications to the city for a zone change and an architectural review. After the community forum this evening, staff will review the proposal before it goes on to the planning commission for a recommendation and then to the city council for approval.
Upon submission, the application didn’t contain a great deal of detail, said Bill Faus, planning division manager.
“Right now, staff has some reservations because of the stance the applicant took a number of years ago,” he said. “They’re proposing to increase the activity level significantly. It’s a radical change from what was originally approved by the city council and planning (commission) in 2001.”
Developers did not return phone messages.
