Jun 28, 2008

Assisted living home plans dropped

New proposal calls for adult day care center on California Drive in Burlingame

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

The developer of a proposed assisted living care facility in Burlingame has withdrawn the project in the face of stiff opposition from nearby residents.

Owners of the property at 755 California Drive notified Burlingame planning officials this week that they were pulling out and requested that the fees they paid be returned. The owner, 755 California Drive LLC, paid $6,882 in planning fees and $76,554 for environmental consulting work.

Burlingame planner Ruben Hurin said he expects to be able to refund all of the environmental consulting fees because hardly any work was done on that part of the project, and the city would probably keep at least half of the planning fees.

"The reasons for taking it to withdrawal now is it is just not (economically) feasible at this point," said the property's owner, George Yerby.

Yerby said opposition to the proposal to build units for 46 residents and 20 underground parking spots surprised him. The project was being developed in conjunction with Sacramento-based Cimino Care, and it was scaled back from previous plans.

The plan now - submitted to the city Friday - is to leave the building as is and make it an adult day care center. It formerly housed a women's athletic club.

"We are going to get a conditional use permit for that use. We will take the existing building and we will lease it to the Cimino family," Yerby said.

Residents opposed to the assisted living facility argued it would have been too massive and would have violated people's privacy with windows facing backyards. They were notified about the application being withdrawn via e-mail earlier this week.

"We were surprised and happy," said Palm Drive resident Brian McGinn, who lives near the property.

McGinn and other residents mobilized against the proposed facility. They wrote council members and planning commissioners and urged the developer to scale it back. They also set up the e-mail address stop755@california.com as part of the effort.

"Quite a number of people from that neighborhood were opposed to it," Burlingame Community Development Director Bill Meeker said.

"To be honest, I think the one thing that really stopped them from doing this ... the project never fit the city's general plan," McGinn said.

The city asked the developer to request a general plan amendment for the project because a conditional use permit alone couldn't allow such a use in an area zoned for commercial use, Meeker said.



E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.