Fullerton : Developers Lose Out on Plan for Seniors’ Home

Despite developers’ revisions to a proposal for a senior citizens home, Planning Commission members have denied their request for a 129-room facility.

With a 4-3 vote Wednesday night, commission members turned down the plan for the Sunny Hills housing project, saying it was incompatible with the surrounding commercial developments, according to Fullerton associate planner John Godlewski.

Developer Samuel Hirt said Friday he did not know whether he and his partner will appeal the commission’s decision to the City Council. Hirt blamed the denial, albeit by a close vote, on a “lack of understanding” from nearby residents and business owners.

“Some of the people were confused” about the two-story facility planned for 1925 Sunnycrest Drive, Hirt said. The project is not a convalescent home or a hospital, he said.

To mollify neighbors’ complaints, the developers scaled back their proposal from an original 163 rooms to 129, Hirt said. They also tripled the amount of open space between the home and a trail that divides the site from houses.

Hirt called the commission’s denial “a shame” and said “we would have been very good for the area.”

In other action Wednesday night, Planning Commission members:

- Denied the Church of the Living God from building on 417 S. Richman Avenue. The commission cited inadequate parking and incompatibility with the industrial area.

- Approved a 43-unit motel at 2601 W. Orangethorpe Ave. and a 169,000-square-foot warehouse on the southwest corner of Lambert Road and Palm Street.