‘Life-Care’ Complex for Seniors Taking Shape at Lake

A $75-million “life-care facility” featuring 426 apartments for senior citizens and a 99-bed nursing home is rising above the southern shore of Lake Hodges, on the west side of Interstate 15 in Rancho Bernardo.

Construction will be completed in two phases, first of which is expected to be finished by June, when 240 apartments, ranging from studio units to two-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot units, will open.

The second phase, with an additional 186 apartments and the nursing home with 59 skilled nursing care and 40 intermediate care beds, is scheduled to open in 1989.

The complex, called Casa de las Campanas, was originally proposed by Rancho Bernardo builder Barry McComic, who then sold the approved project to Mediplex of California Inc., which is building it. The facility will be operated by the Foundation to Assist California Teachers (FACT), which owns and/or operates several such long-term-care centers in California.

Residents will pay a one-time “entrance fee” ranging from $49,500 to $152,500, and pay a monthly service fee ranging from $775 to $1,550, which includes housekeeping services, grounds maintenance, all utilities except telephone, one meal a day in the main dining room, weekly linen service, nursing care if needed and a wide range of recreational activities and offerings including use of an exercise gymnasium, swimming pools, arts and crafts rooms and the like.

The construction of the facility generated little opposition, said Rancho Bernardo Community Planning Board member Charles Jacobs, because “there were no better proposals for the use of the land.” The land was previously zoned for high-density residential use and the population density of this particular project falls within those limits, he noted.

Furthermore, McComic noted, the facility will have less of a traffic and environmental impact on the neighborhood than an equivalent number of apartments or condominiums that could have been built on the site.

The developer did agree to change the roof line and color treatment of the facility to reduce the sense of its mass, and has promised to plant extensive landscaping, which, when mature, is expected to shield much of the facility from freeway view, Casa de las Campanas Executive Director David Cole said.