Commission to review plan for scaled-back senior housing
The developer of a proposed luxury continuum-of-care retirement community at Bright Road and Emerald Parkway in Dublin said he expects to present a revised proposal in mid-january to the Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission.
“I'm passionate about this and know we can bring a great project to Dublin,” Steve Newcomb, a partner in Powellbased Newbury Cos., said Dec. 1.
Newbury Cos. is proposing the construction of a campus that would provide independent living, assisted living, memory care, respite care and residences for seniors ages 55 and older.
The applicant for the proposed development is Bright Road Senior Development Partnership.
Newcomb met with Dublin planning staff Dec. 1 and, based on feedback from that discussion and discussion during a concept plan Nov. 4 at the Planning and Zoning Commission, said he would return for a second concept-plan presentation.
The concept plan presented Nov. 4 called for the development of two parcels. The first site is a 22-acre parcel to the northeast of the intersection of Bright Road and Emerald Parkway; the other is an 18-acre parcel southwest of the same intersection.
On Dec. 1, the plan was revised to proceed with construction only at the northeast site, Newcomb said.
The 22-acre site is zoned a mix of restricted suburban residential, plannedunit development and planned-commercial district and within it includes 3.5 acres of city-owned property.
If the proposal advances, the city would have to determine how to divest itself of the 3.5 acres because the city is not part of the proposed development, according to Christopher Will, a planner with Dublin.
The proposed site is adjacent to a site where Mount Carmel Health System is proposing a 190,000-square-foot, 30bed in-patient hospital and ambulatory center on 35 acres that fronts Bright Road, Sawmill Road, Emerald Parkway and Interstate 270.
As a concept plan, the applicant receives feedback from the Planning and Zoning Commission without any vote being taken. The commission typically provides an applicant with direction before any formal application is made, Will said.
Typically, an applicant's next step would be to either present it again as a concept plan for additional nonbinding feedback from the commission or submit a formal preliminary development plan and rezoning request for a formal review by the commission, Will said.
Newcomb said Dec. 1 he would present a revised concept plan to the commission before seeking approval of a preliminary development plan.
The preliminary development plan establishes zoning regulations identifying permitted uses, minimum setbacks, open spaces, access points and site circulation, number of parking spaces, architectural framework and preliminary tree preservation and replacement and landscape design, Will said.
Additionally, a full traffic analysis and stormwater management analysis are required.
“The commission makes a recommendation to City Council, which is the final determining body when rezonings are under consideration,” Will said.
A final development plan is the last step and finalizes all design details, including architectural details, building materials, landscape design, tree preservation and replacement, and signs, Will said.
According to the concept plan presented Nov. 4, the northeast parcel would include 420,000 square feet of institutional use on 15 acres and 49 residential units on 7 acres; the southwest parcel would have included 204,900 square feet of institutional use and 62 residential units on 11 acres but will not be part of the revised concept plan when it is presented again, Newcomb said.
The original proposal also includes 4.5 acres of open space along a stream corridor and 4 acres of open space on Emerald Parkway, according to the concept plan.
The original proposal indicates a boulevard entry into the site from Bright Road, a connection to a shared drive on Sawmill Road and a new entry from Emerald Parkway.
The proposal was met with mixed signals from the Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 4, but Newcomb said Dec. 1 he is confident the revised concept plan will allay concerns.
“I'm supportive of the land use,” commission member Lance Schneier said, adding that although it is early in the process, “it's shaping up to be potentially a really good facility.”
Commission member Jane Fox took an opposing view.
“I can't support the project at all,” said
Fox, adding that the density is too high and the proposal conflicts with the city's community plan, including that Emerald Parkway be developed as an “economic driver” and maintaining the “quaint” character on Bright Road. “The plan doesn't do that,” she said. Commission member Kim Way suggested the community plan, created in 2007, might need to be revisited.
Way said Dublin, like many cities, has an aging population that will need the kind of facility being proposed.
Newcomb told commission members Nov. 4 that the proposed campus was in fact being designed to meet such a need.
Newcomb on Dec. 1 described it as a campus for “active seniors” and the 22acres allows for the campus to include the amenities that active adults seek and desire, such as pickleball counts, salons and indoor pools, which are all possible on the 22-acre parcel.
But even while acknowledging the market for it, other commission members said it simply does not meet the criteria of the community plan for the corridor.
Rebecca Call, commission chair, said Nov. 4 that she was “squarely in Ms. Fox's camp” and opposed to the proposal, but if the commission were to agree, she would support asking City Council to revisit the community plan.
Call said it was “not the purview” of the commission to revise the community plan, rather to interpret whether a proposal fits it, and the proposal for the Bright Road senior community does not.
Adjacent residents speaking Nov. 4 also provided mixed responses.
Corey Barnes of Bright Road said he would rather see houses than commercial buildings.
John Wreathall of Macduff Way told commission members he was “appalled” at the scale of the proposal.
Newcomb said the concept plan likely would differ from what was presented Nov. 4 based on the feedback received during the concept-plan presentation.