COSTA MESA : Permit for Senior Citizen Center OKd

The Planning Commission has approved a special permit to allow construction of a multiuse senior citizen center in the central part of the city.

The city will build the two-story, 20,127-square-foot facility on the old Mardan School property at 19th Street and Pomona Avenue. Before construction begins in September, the city will demolish the school building, which was once the Costa Mesa City Hall.

Although the city has set aside $2.5 million to build the senior center, the total dollar amount of construction costs still is being determined, said Rick Pickering, assistant to city manager L. Allan Roeder.

A model of the proposed center is on display at City Hall at 77 Fair Drive. The design plans include large meeting rooms, a kitchen and recreational areas, a health clinic for vision, diabetes and blood-pressure screening, a counseling office, and other rooms for legal assistance and support group meetings.

The center will be run by the Costa Mesa Senior Citizens Corp., which was created by the City Council in 1987. Executive Director Susan Schollenberger has already begun arranging services for the center.

The health clinic in the center will be staffed by UC Irvine’s family medicine department, whose students will treat the seniors both at the center and at home, she said.

“We’re working out an agreement with them, but it will most likely be free because they want their students to have experience working with seniors,” Schollenberger said.

The Senior Citizens Corp. has also hired a public relations firm to help raise the $325,000 that is expected to be needed annually to run the center, Vice Mayor Mary Hornbuckle said.

The center is expected to be in use about a year from ground breaking in September, Hornbuckle said.

After the center is fully operational, Hornbuckle said, the city will then begin looking into building senior citizen housing on the site.

“The Mardan site is large enough to accommodate 45 to 50 units for senior living, but these are just the beginnings (of the plans),” she said. “The city is looking for a developer, but it’s still very preliminary. For now, we’re focusing on the senior center.”