Reprieve for senior living proposal
Planned complex gets a six-month extension on deadline for needed action
A proposed senior living complex on the north side of Strack and Van Til on Cline Avenue in Highland isn’t dead, but it does need a little more time to get moving.
The Highland Plan Commission at its Wednesday evening meeting granted that time by voting 7-0 to extend the December deadline for The Russell Group to act on its plat approval. The extension gives the Davenport, Iowa-based developer up to six months to start moving on the hotly contested project, its local attorney Jim Wieser said Thursday.
Wieser said a combination of health issues and negotiations between Russell Group and Griffland Center Inc. caused the need for the extension. Additionally, Commissioner Olga Briseno, who was appointed to replace the late Mark Kendra, had questions about the project, he said.
“Our opinion is that extension doesn’t harm anything; the current users of the land are farming it,” Wieser said of Scheeringa Farm and Produce, which has and continues to oppose the project. “The Plan Commission agreed.”
The Highland Town Council voted 3-2 a second time in February 2021 to amend the town’s zoning map to change the 19.5 acres south of the Griffland property to R-3 Planned-Use Development from R-1-A single-family housing. It previously voted to approve the change during a special meeting Aug. 31, 2020, but Russell Group opted to send the project back through the Plan Commission a third time because of a legal notice error.
The Plan Commission then voted 5-1-1 in December to recommend both the R-3 PUD designation and two-lot plat approval at its third public hearing on the matter. The motions passed contingent up an agreement crafted by Wieser and Town Attorney John Reed ensuring the entire 20 acres north of the Griffland property on Cline Avenue would never house any sort of housing other than the $39 million senior-living center proposed by Russell Group; nor would anyone under age 55 be allowed to live at the senior center for longer than 90 days unless the person is a resident’s caretaker.
The covenant was designed to eliminate concern that the center, should Russell Group decide to abandon the project down the road, could be turned into an apartment complex or other short-term housing.
The council in also in December voted 3-2 to approve the ordinance that puts in place the funding mechanism for improvements tied to and surrounding the senior living facility. The bonds will be purchased by the town, Davenport, Iowa-based developer Russell Group will assume their repayment over 20 years.
The bond money, in turn, will go toward creating a physical road out of the so-named “Ernie Strack Drive,” which is the rear entrance to the Strack and VanTil grocery store off Kleinman Road; disconnecting the store and its tenants from the Town of Griffith’s sanitary lines and moved onto Highland’s sanitary lines; and parking improvements to the store’s parking lot that won’t interfere with other tenants in the complex.
The project will comprise at least 70 independent living apartments with full kitchens, in-unit laundry and garages 50 to 60 assisted-living apartments with kitchenettes and laundry, and a memory-care unit with 18 to 20 specially designed apartments with programming for those with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia-related illnesses.
Other amenities will include multiple dining options with meals prepared by an on-site chef, game rooms, a library, general store, salon and a large wellness center with fitness equipment and offering daily fitness classes.