Fullerton Council to Consider Plan on Life-Care Center

A group of doctors’ proposal to build a sophisticated planned community for well-to-do people in their 60s and older on a 35.5-acre oil field is scheduled to go before the Fullerton City Council tonight.

If approved, the $60-million-plus project would be operated as a life-care facility where residents would be provided with homes, health care and other social services for as long as they live, according to Barry Eaton, Fullerton’s chief planner

The project, which includes housing ranging from villas for active residents to nursing facilities for the sick and frail, has become one of the most complex plans the city has considered in several years, Eaton said. It has brought objections from homeowners in East Coyote Hills in northeast Fullerton, who are expected to attend tonight’s meeting en masse.

Consortium of Physicians

CoreCare Inc., a consortium of 75 Fullerton physicians, is seeking city permission to build the development with five levels of care and different types of housing. It would consist of 248 units. The facilities would include 54 villas or cottages for the active, 90 suites and 162 beds at an intermediate-care facility. A skilled-nursing facility would be open 24 hours a day.

Life-care communities are regulated by the state but are subsidized by their residents. They are not inexpensive. In exchange for shelter and care, residents pay an entrance fee and monthly service payments. In this case, the initial accommodation fee would range from $50,000 to $150,000 and the monthly costs would be between $1,200 to $1,500, Eaton said.

“They’re buying insurance, in essence,” Eaton said of the initial fee. “No matter what happens, they will have some place to be for the rest of their lives.”

“It’s a new concept and it appeals to a lot of people who can afford it,” Eaton said.

In Orange County, Irvine is home to the only other large life-care facility, called Regents Point, according to Eaton. A Fullerton city report called the life-care concept “the most complex and comprehensive of the senior housing types.”

Once built, the project could house up to 793 people. The minimum qualifying age has not yet been decided, but it would be either 62 or 65, Eaton said. If a married couple applied, one spouse could be younger.

The complex would be managed by Retirement Centers of America, a division of Avon Products, according to a report from the city’s Development Services Department.

In the works for over two years, the plan was complicated by various factors. One such issue the council will consider tonight is whether to approve changing the zoning of the site from “oil and gas” to “planned residential development with an oil overlay,” which allows the juxtaposition of homes and oil wells.

Oil Wells on Property

Union Oil operates 18 oil wells on the property, including 13 within the development area or just beyond 100 feet from where the structures are proposed. Union Oil tentatively has agreed to abandon five of the wells and is negotiating on possibly abandoning five others, according to the city report.

City planners say the developer can take numerous steps to mitigate potential problems, such as ridding the site of drilling mud and oil field wastes.

Of the site’s 35.5 acres, 10 would be developed with structures, 12 with landscaping and another 13.5 left undeveloped. An additional eight acres--at a point where Bastanchury Road and Brea Boulevard meet--would be left open for a shopping center that is being proposed by CoreCare, Eaton said.

The project would also include a public equestrian trail, a one-acre public park, a tennis court, a swimming pool and recreation area, a 10,000-square-foot lake and a stream, according to the city report.

Neighboring residents have cited various objections to the plans, including a fear that it would affect Puente Street, north of Bastanchury Road. City officials have said the plans will not call for the expansion or widening of the street.