Sterling Studios get Planning Commision OK
Project’s goal is to lease units to businesses for ‘workforce housing’
The need for more housing overruled concerns about traffic and parking when the Bishop Planning Commission voted on Tuesday to clear the way for the former Sterling Heights assisted living building to be converted into rental apartments.
Aaron Schat has purchased the building and the home on the lot next door. He proposed creating a total of 69 “workforce housing” rental units, consisting of 58 studio apartments and 11 two-room suites. The application states the studios would rent for $1,000 a month with the suites going for $1,500 a month. The complex located at 369 East Pine Street will be renamed Sterling Studios.
Schat’s application states the goal of the project is to “sub-lease directly to local business to guarantee workforce housing.” For example, a business would secure a set number of units, then the business would make “its” units available to its employees or contractors.
During the meeting, Kelli Davis, CEO of Northern Inyo Hospital, said the hospital supports the development which could help provide additional workforce housing options for the hospital and other local employers. Toiyabe Indian Health Services sent a letter supporting the development for much of the same reasons.
Suggestions to tear down the home and add more parking or reduce the number of rental units were rejected by Schat and the commission, which approved the proposal 4-2.
To move forward with the project, Schat needed a conditional use permit that would allow for the conversion of the building to rental/workforce housing units, construction of a new parking lot, and reducing the parking requirement to just one parking space per unit, as opposed to the current zoning for the building which would require two parking spaces per unit.
To meet the parking requirement, Schat will build a 32-space parking lot on the back of the adjoining lot, but leave the home. The building already has 39 parking spaces in the parking lot under the building. An additional four spaces would be created on the west side of the building. That would create 75 total parking spaces. Handicapped spaces and electric vehicle charging stations would be part of the mix.
The Sterling Heights building and property is “an oddball situation,” according to assistant city attorney Russ Hildebrand. The 44,000 square foot building was approved by the city in 1981, the staff report noted. So it does not meet current zoning code requirements, which have been updated since the building was built and used as an assisted living community.
Basically, the conditional use permit allows for the “re-use of a pre-existing, non-conforming” building and land use, Hildebrand said. He added the city General Plan stresses the need for more housing, as do state housing laws. Thus, the conditional use permit is the best way to allow the building to be converted to workforce housing to meet the goals of the gen-
eral plan, he added.
Sterling Heights was the only assisted living facility withing 150 miles of Bishop. It closed at the end of June, 2021 due to long-term financial issues and challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the company that owned and ran the facility.
The traffic concerns focused on the alley on the east side of the building that connects to a concrete city path leading to the city park. The alley is used by cyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians to get to the park. Neighbor Nell Hecht suggested additional signage and other changes to the alley that would alert drivers and pedestrians of more traffic in the alley than has been typical for decades.
The parking lot across from the west alley would be fairly tight and will be bordered with walls and landscaping and will meet city parking lot codes, the staff report noted.
The need for more housing is critical, but “parking is the $64,000 question,” said commission chair Patricia The idea that all the residents in the building would only have one car “was a little optimistic,” said commissioner Erik Leitch. There would be a real chance that residents’ cars would “spill over into the neighborhood.” Although more workforce housing is a primary need, that housing should not unduly impact existing neighborhoods, he said.
Leitch suggested demolishing the home and turning the entire lot into parking. Schat said the house was worth $500,000 and he didn’t want to tear it down.
Inevitably, the suggestion brought out the Joni Mitchell lyric, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” voiced by commissioner Heather Lind.
Leitch then suggested making more two-room units, which would reduce the total number of units and thus the parking requirement. Schat said he made the $14 million investment based on financial returns created by the 69 units rented at below current market rates. “This is the closest you can get to affordable housing in Bishop.”
Davis said the hospital currently rents properties in Bishop, but is still struggling to find rentals for traveling nurses and other employees. The lack of housing also hurts the hospital’s recruitment efforts. The hospital supports Schat’s project, which “could potentially meet the needs of the community,” she said. Everyone needs to “think outside the box” when it comes to Bishop’s housing shortage, she added.
The commission approved the conditional use permit and other related requirements by a 4-2 vote with Lew and Leitch voting no, and commissioners Lind, Robert Lowthrop, Harry Bhakta and Andrew Gaidus voting yes.