Planners OK Facility for Assisted Living

Aegis Assisted Living Properties has won Planning Commission approval for an 86-room assisted-living and Alzheimer’s disease care center on Telegraph Road near Ventura College.

If approved by the City Council on Jan. 10, the facility near Day Road would add 34 beds for Alzheimer’s patients to the city, according to officials with Aegis.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the seven-member Planning Commission was met with positive response from officials at nearby elder-care facilities.

“We’re pleased,” said Meredith McDonald, spokeswoman for the TowneHouse and Venturan Convalescent Hospital, a block west of the proposed center. “We don’t have an environment for Alzheimer’s and dementia, which will be a big part of their plan.

“There’s going to be a real need in the next few years, even more than we have now, for quality care in that particular area,” McDonald said.

Aegis has operated assisted-care living centers for three years in California, Nevada and Washington. The company specializes in building its own projects from the ground up, instead of revamping existing buildings, said company officials.

Aegis spokesman Joe Stucker said the new Ventura facility should be completed by spring 2001. In addition to Alzheimer’s patients, the facility will cater to seniors not requiring nursing home care, but who are not able to live entirely on their own.

Aegis has built 15 similar facilities and operates five of them, Stucker said. The company plans several more assisted-care facilities next year, including three in Orange County and three in Northern California.