First Phase Of Senior Campus Project Receives Preliminary Approval

Only one of three phases of a $45 million senior living campus presented by Siena Partners will move forward to the Village Board for approval.

Officials with Siena Partners, a partnership between the and , presented three phases to the Plan Commission meeting Wednesday, but only the first phase will be recommended.

The Commission held off on considering the second and third phase because those phases of the development still needed further planning and analysis work. All of the phases would be built on the Siena Center campus located at 5635 Erie Street.

Plan commission member Ron Last said he was concerned about the potential impact of the project on Village services and wanted to make sure the impact of the development wasn't a negative to Village taxpayers.

"I'm looking for this project to have a positive impact on the Village," he said.

The Plan Commission recommendation requires Siena Partners to pay for a boulevard near the entrance to the facility, a $200,000 impact fee and landscaping.

The initial phase of the project would include demolishing 100,000 square feet of the current building, which housed the Racine Dominican Sisters, and re-constructing a $12 million building with 90,000 square feet of space. They hope to start the project this summer and anticipate completing the first phase of the project in early 2013.

Mike Hayek, the Village Engineer, raised the concern that the increased traffic to the buildings would increase the traffic burden on the intersection of Erie and Four Mile roads. The fire and police departments are also recommending the extension of 4 1/2 Mile Road from Charles to Erie. However, officials with Siena Partners took issue with that assessment.

Greg Zastrow, the developer on the project, said the first phase wouldn't add any more traffic because it issentially follows the same footprint of the previous buildings and wouldn't add any staff.

But the entire three-phase build out would increase traffic about 240 cars on a daily basis, which includes service trucks and staff, and add 56 full-time equivalent jobs to the community.

With those concerns raised, the Plan Commission decided to require the road improvements to be funded by Siena Partners but agreed the upgrades wouldn’t be needed until the second and third phase.

To move forward the Village Board would still need to make the final approval, which is set for April 30.