CALABASAS : Center for Children, Seniors Approved

The Calabasas Planning Commission has approved a proposal to build a center that would provide joint day care for preschoolers and senior citizens, planning officials said Friday.

Construction of the Evergreen Generations project at a 12-acre site in the Santa Monica Mountains--which is being planned to give senior citizens and the children the opportunity to mingle each day--could begin as early as January, project developer Arnold Bresky said.

“I have been trying to develop this project for almost three years,” the Calabasas resident said. “I am ecstatic.”

The commission approved the proposal after the developer agreed to modifications of the driveway design and fire-escape routes.

Bresky said the idea of caring for seniors and children under one roof is rooted in the historical model of a village, where older people help to rear children. He believes projects such as this will be models for day-care centers of the future. “This is a project for the 21st Century,” he said. “We have to go back to the family. This is one of the first baby steps in that direction.”

Barring snags in the permitting process, the 5,475-square-foot center, to be located at the corner of Dry Canyon Cold Creek and Old Topanga Canyon roads, will open next fall, Bresky said.

It will offer 24-hour-a-day services for about 100 children, including 24 infants. The cost of extended service for children, which includes evening and weekend hours, will be about $650 a month. About eight senior citizens will receive full-time day care at the center for about $800 a month.

Bresky said he hopes to offer enrichment classes and activities such as storytelling and vegetable gardening to promote interaction among the children, the seniors receiving care and volunteers.

Bresky, who is an obstetrician and runs a senior fitness center, said he believes in the adage that the true measure of a culture is how it treats its old and young.

“Everyone goes through two doors: birth and death,” he said. “It is my purpose in life to soften those two doors.”