Flowers of Marengo

Senior Housing

Letter regarding Conditional Use

Director, Planning and Permitting Department
City of Pasadena
175 N. Garfield Place
Pasadena, CA 91101

Subject:Senior Housing Project, N. Fair Oaks

Dear Mr. Lewis:

The neighborhood association, Flowers of Marengo has no involvement with the legal action recently initiated against the Senior Housing project planned for North Fair Oaks Avenue. In testimony before the City Council and in the recently convened (April 12, 2000) meeting, representatives from Flowers of Marengo have persistently voiced our opposition to this project as currently designed. We would welcome the opportunity to support this project, but cannot offer this support until major design problems have been agreed on in future discussions and during the "conditional use process." We have listed some of our design concerns below:

• The elevation grade for all public and private walkways and parking paving should accommodate people with mobility problems, i.e. should conform to ADA maximum handicap slope requirements.
• Parking should be adequate to meet tenant needs as well as encourage their relatives and friends to visit. Adequate visitor parking decreases the potential of social isolation among the tenants by creating conditions that facilitate visitor access. The following considerations will facilitate adequate parking requirements:
• Since seniors tend to drive larger cars, at least 90% of tenant parking must accommodate full size cars.
• The standard of parking for only 40% of the tenants may not be adequate. An increasing number of the senior population own cars, and this increase may be accented in an area such as Los Angeles where cars are necessary to maintain independence and mobility.
• A minimum of seven parking spaces should be provided for visitors, and 5 of these should be designated as non-handicap, visitor spaces.
• This is a high crime area, and designing parking conditions that encourages safe conditions for tenant and visitor parking will help reduce senior vulnerability to crime.
• Parking should be screened as much as possible by placing it behind the building or by landscaping.
• Tenant parking spaces should be covered with a roof as much as possible: this serves the dual function or providing safe entry and exit during poor weather and retards the deterioration of their vehicles.

• The building and grounds should provide an attractive home for tenants. The following conditions not only enhance appearance, but also ensure that seniors receive the standards of building and landscaping to which they are entitled:
• Walls and fences need to be at least 3 feet from the sidewalk or other paving to accommodate landscaping.
• Each tenant space should have outdoor access, such as balconies.
• The number, size and placement of trees and other plants should conform to the "City of Garden Standards."
• Building walls shall be appropriately modulated to prevent a progression of blank, flat wall planes. Some elements of embellishment and articulation should be provided.
• The exterior of the building should not be one monotone color, but should include at least 2 or 3 coordinating trim colors, and at least 3 textures, in addition to window glazing. There textures could be derived from a combination of materials such as stucco, river rock, wood, ship-lap, fish-scale, or turned spindles.
• No tenant window should be located facing a blank retaining wall (within 15 feet) so that the walls can be properly screened with landscaping.

• Other design concerns include the following issues:
• All mechanical equipment (HVAC, Air-conditioning, etc.) should be located and properly screened so that it is not visible from public areas and neighboring property.
• The grade at retaining walls should be sloped and landscaped with stepped walls so that no wall section is higher than 3 feet.
• All means possible should be considered to minimize the height of the sill-plates.

We also have concerns that adequate guarantees are in place for the "conditions of use." Some of the conditions of use concerns that have emerged during are discussions are cited below:
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• Adequate policies/procedures to ensure that tenant emergencies are responded to appropriately and in a timely fashion, and oversight that monitors implementation of these..
• Adequate means (staff, access to communication, policies & procedures, accountability) for responding to tenant concerns, and an appeals process for concerns not managed to the tenant's satisfaction.
• Policies/procedures for addressing problem tenants.
• Policies/procedures for addressing illegal activities, regardless of whether the illegal activities are conducted by tenants or by non-tenants who conduct the illegal activities on the senior housing property.
• Policies/procedures to assist tenants in managing conflicts around the use of common areas.
• Assurances that the facility is strictly for Senior tenants who have the capacity for managing their own fiscal and activity of daily living affairs independently, or with minimal assistance.

We firmly believe that compromising either the safety or esthetic conditions of the senior's homes should not enhance the profit margin of the developers. We are more than willing to continue discussions in the service of negotiating acceptable design modifications and conditions of use. We will, however, draw a firm line on some design and conditions of use issues that we have designated as pivotal to an acceptable quality of life for the senior tenants who will occupy these spaces as their homes.

Respectfully,

Robert Wittry, President

Herman Calderon, Vice-President

Margaret Baxter, Treasurer

Judith Saunders, Secretary
Flowers of Marengo
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cc: Joyce Streator, Vice-Mayor and Council Representative, District One
? ? ? ?  Jane Lukas, Acting Director, Pasadena Senior Center
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