The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Senior living project gets OK
Complex to include independent, assisted, memory care housing
A senior housing campus envisioned long ago appears to have the final pieces falling into place.
Mentor Planning Commission recently approved the final site plan and architectural review of Omni Senior Living’s multi-unit independent-living facilities for 8180 and 8190 Mentor Hills Drive, and adjacent independent-living villas.
There were no significant changes since the commission granted preliminary approval March 5 to Beachwood-based Omni’s plans for a complex consisting of up to 63 ranch-style villas and a
three-story, 139,600-squarefoot independent living facility linked with a 61,500-square-foot assisted living/memory care building.
The project, southwest of Interstate 90 and Route 615, situates the villas on about 20 acres south of the Symphony at Mentor and Heartland of Mentor facilities.
The ranches will be attached to up to five other units, ranging from 1,300 to 1,500 square feet each with two bedrooms and one- or two-car garages.
Proposed amenities include a clubhouse and three separate dining rooms in the complex.
The villas would be built in phases, 10 to 12 units at a time.
The proposed facilities will complement the surrounding nursing/rehabilitation facility to the south and the existing memory care facility to the west, according to a staff report to the commission.
Commission member Geoffrey Varga asked whether the building renderings provided are accurate in terms of colors and materials.
Omni representative Gary Biales indicated that they were from a different project, but confirmed they would be incorporated in the Mentor complex as well.
“We really do want to impress people when they drive up to our community,” Biales said.
Questions arose about the additional access stipulated by the commission at the preliminary review.
Planning Director Kathy Mitchell noted that it has to be an improved road.
Biales said it will be a 24-foot-wide asphalt road that can sustain emergency vehicles.
“It will not just be for fire trucks, it will also be a second access point into our community,” he said.
The property has a long history of development proposals.
The latest one is considered consistent with the site’s original approved development plan from 1982, which indicated 300 apartment units, cluster ranch units and a nursing home. The nursing home, Heartland of Mentor, went forward in 1984.
In September 1994, City Council approved rezoning about 12 acres from MRD, Research & Development to B-1, Community Service for an Alzheimer’s facility with 52 rooms and a three-story, 150-unit residential care facility. The Alzheimer’s facility, Kemper House, was built in 2000.
In November 2004, a development plan was submitted for 48 single-family detached units and seven four-story apartment buildings on about 29 acres, but the commission voted to dismiss the plan without prejudice.
Since then, Symphony at Mentor, an Alzheimer’s and dementia care facility, opened in the Kemper House location.
Omni in September 2018, received preliminary approval from the commission for a 146-unit project with 88 independent-living units within a three-story wing, 40 units in a two-story assisted-living wing and 16 units within a single-story memory care wing.
Following the commission’s unanimous approval on June 18, longtime member William Snow joked with Biales.
“Gary it’s taken forever,” he said.
Biales responded, “Forever, but it’s done.”