by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
The St. Joseph City Council moved one step closer at its regular meeting this week to allowing Country Manor Campus to build a proposed senior-facility campus in the city.
An AUAR, a city official said, is a planning tool for local governments to assess the cumulative impacts of anticipated development scenarios within a given geographic area and how different development scenarios will affect the environment.
“In 2005, when Arcon was first developed, we went through this long process to look at the environmental concerns,” St. Joseph City Administrator Judy Weyrens told the council April 18. “And again, it was amended in 2007 when the (Kennedy) school was built.”
Country Manor Campus, GLTA Architects and Alliance Building Corp. gave a presentation to the planning commission April 11 about the proposed facility by Country Manor, which would locate the new facility along CR 121, west of Kennedy Community School.
“And now Country Manor is looking at building in that same area, they would have to amend the AUAR . . . because it’s changing again what the use is,” she said. “The use they are proposing is less dense, and it actually preserves the environment more than the other plan did.”
The project would include 60 independent-living units and 24 units for memory care, and stores and services such as a beauty shop and spa, a general store with an in-house coffee shop, a convenience store, a chapel, a bistro, outpatient rehabilitation and underground parking.
Because the city of St. Joseph is considered the “regulating government unit” in the process, city officials must authorize the environmental document and start the ball rolling. If the proposed project is to become a reality, it will be situated on 135 acres of land on the south side of St. Joseph.
“We typically hire somebody to do that report, and they reimburse us for those costs, so at this point we are asking the council to authorize the AUAR update,” she said of using Westwood Professionals Inc.’s services with the developer paying for the associated costs.
In the end, the city council unanimously approved of having Westwood Professionals updating the AUAR that would allow County Manor Campus to be a step closer to building its proposed senior facility.
Construction for the facility, which will cost an estimated $14-$16 million, Weyrens said, could start this summer after public hearings and an environmental review by the St. Joseph City Council.
Also, city staffers have been working on ordinance amendments for the planning commission and the city council, said Weyrens at the April 18 city council meeting.
Police Chief Joel Klein who was at the meeting had asked for an amendment to address bicycling in the downtown area on sidewalks where space is limited. The current ordinance prohibits skateboarders or in-line skaters on the sidewalks because of safety issues.
“I just want to do that with bikes . . . just in case we have another incident like last year where people coming out of one of the stores almost got hit,” Klein said of the ordinance he requested that would apply from Second Avenue Northwest to First Avenue Southeast.
Councilmember Matt Killam announced before the meeting’s end that the footgolf course at the city’s Northland Park was now open; Weyrens cautioned those wanting to use the course at the park north of CR 75 to be mindful of the surrounding private, residential property.
“There’s a couple of tweaks we want to make to it throughout the summer, but it’s (footgolf course) fully functional,” Killam said. “I’ve gone through it with my kids and I’ve seen other families out there, so I guess I encourage other people, too, to give it a whirl.”
St. Joseph Police Chief Joel Klein takes a sip from his water bottle between questions at the April 18 city-council meeting that included discussions about bicycle use on sidewalks and safety concerns in the downtown area.
