Planners approve assisted living facility

On a 7-0 vote, the Sisters planning commission approved the master plan and site plan review for an 82-room assisted living facility (ALF) to be built on 7.2 acres of the "Carpenter property" just south of the post office, between Locust and Larch streets.

Community Development Director Pauline Hardie presented staff findings to the commissioners with a recommendation to approve application. As a Type III application, the decision was not a recommendation to the Sisters City Council. The approved decision by the planning commission will be emailed to the council with the option for them to call it up, but there is no automatic review or public hearing. (Editor's note: a previous version of this story incorrectly described the protocol for the decision).

The 77,000-square-foot facility will include 82 private-residence rooms. Each room will have a door to the common area, and a door to the outside. The common area will include a dining facility, a chapel/theater, a fitness center, a library and laundry facilities.

The exterior will include a series of 13 individually themed landscaped gardens with water features.

Both the gardens and the individual outside access are optional features added by ALF developer Mark Adolf. They are included to fit with the more active outdoor lifestyle of Central Oregon residents of all ages. The monitored exterior doors from each room add to the fire safety of the residents.

In keeping with its downtown commercial zoning, there will not be parking lots between the street and the building. The primary entrance will be off Public Way - a street that is mapped on the city's master plan, but not yet completed between the post office and the northern boundary of the ALF complex. There will be a second entrance off Larch Street.

A similar project has been on the books for several years for the property on McKinney Butte just east of and adjoining Sisters High School. The McKinney Butte project was to include low-maintenance senior housing off McKinney Butte, an assisted-living complex in the center of the property, and low-income housing at the north end of the property. The ALF drawings for the Carpenter property are for the most part identical to the McKinney Butte project plans.

The developers of the McKinney Butte project included Mark Adolf and a group of local developers represented by Bill Willitts. At that time, the plan for the ALF was also to include a senior center to be donated to Sisters by the developers.

With the Carpenter property development, the status of the McKinney Butte project is unclear.