Housing alternatives for seniors who need a hand with daily tasks are on the rise in Naperville.
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A task force assembled a year ago to look into programs and services for the region’s older residents has found the availability and affordability of appropriate housing among the top concerns for the growing population segment. But after rejecting proposals in the past several years for developments designed to meet the extra needs of many of the city’s older residents, city officials have taken a liking to more recent plans pitched for the northeast and southwest corners of town.
Harbor Retirement Associates, which specializes in assisted living and memory care, will soon open a 92,887-square-foot facility on Mill Street south of Diehl Road. The two-story HarborChase Retirement Center will face Nike Park and will include 96 dwelling units similar to the company’s existing campus in northwest Plainfield.
Mindi Kocurek, director of marketing for the Florida-based company, said the sales center will open at the Mill Street location soon.
“We are looking at a finish date for Naperville around May 2016,” Kocurek said this week.
Rental rates and grand opening specials for the facility have not yet been set, but the market research needed for that will begin shortly, she said.
Presented to the Planning & Zoning Commission less than two years ago, the project received final approval from the City Council for the needed annexation, rezoning, plats and conditional use permit in July 2014.
The process hadn’t gone as well for an earlier plan to include memory care as part of a development that recently opened the doors on the city’s first full-sized convention center.
Approved in 2013 a few weeks before the HarborChase project, the Freedom Plaza development north of Diehl Road off Abriter Court, anchored by the newly opened Embassy Suites Hotel, was once planned to include a facility specializing in care for people with Alzheimer’s disease. The controversial plan was presented in 2011 but city officials turned it down, saying it was inconsistent with the area’s character.
The HarborChase project drew less criticism, according to city planner Derek Rockwell. A couple of neighbors questioned the stormwater drainage plans and voiced worries that the development would generate a lot of traffic. Rockwell said the stormwater management plan was deemed sufficient, however, and Harbor Retirement’s contracted traffic study drew support from the city. The facility will generate “relatively low” traffic, he said, compared to other uses for which the site is considered suitable in the city’s long-term plan, such as multifamily housing or office/research purposes.
The advisory Planning & Zoning Commission also gave its blessing last week to a proposal for 94 living units on 5.8 acres at Forgue Drive and Leverenz Road, northeast of 95th Street and Route 59, that also would provide assisted living services and memory care. Unlike a plan for a senior development across Route 59 that met a cool response from the city early in 2014, largely due to its location in the center of a retail area, the proposed Capital Seniors Housing Naperville development would be adjacent to existing multifamily housing and undeveloped land.
Attorney Vince Rosanova, representing CSH Naperville LLC, said the project would provide “a much-needed housing opportunity for Naperville’s diverse and aging population.”
After clearing the zoning panel unanimously, the plan is headed to the City Council for final review in November.
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