Welcome to the Preserve SRC Campus web site
(SRC stands for the Saratoga Retirement Community)
Preserve SRC Campus is an information organization with the goal:
To preserve the SRC campus,
our home, as a rural and open space campus and to find a
better way for the long term future of SRC than
packing the campus with new buildings and
underground garages.
Members of the group act as individuals. The group, including this
web site, is a way of disseminating information upon which
individuals may act if they so choose.
The group was formed in response to an Expansion
Plan submitted to the City of Saratoga by Pacific Retirement
Services (PRS), who manage the Saratoga Retirement
Community for the Odd
Fellows Home of California.
A number of residents have developed an Alternate
Proposal which they have submitted to Saratoga City for
consideration as part of the Environmental Impact Review (EIR).
Do you support the Alternate Proposal? If so, then please click or tap here to
send us an email and let us know and please
send your comments to the City. Thank you.
Update, December 10th: The City held a Community
Meeting on November 16th and the EIR Public
Scoping Meeting on December 9th. Videos of both meetings
are on the City Comment tab.
The Saratoga
Falcon published an article on December 3rd entitled Senior
and local residents advocate for an alternative to the proposed
construction at the Saratoga Retirement Community.
What is the PRS Proposal?
PRS are proposing to add 52 Independent Living apartments in three
buildings, as shown in the following campus map:
They are also proposing to add a new meeting room and an extension
to the existing fitness center. The three residential buildings
would all have underground parking. The proposal also includes a new
emergency access to the campus from Chester Road (opposite McLaren
Lane, not shown on the above map).
What are our concerns?
Our concerns are that
- The locations of the three residential buildings destroy all
the existing open spaces on the campus, taking away the bucolic
charm of SRC, removing the outdoor areas for residents'
recreation and relaxation, and generally impacting the
residents' quality of life.
- The PRS proposal requires the removal 60 mature and protected
trees, significantly impacting the semi-rural nature of the
campus.
- Placing a building on Odd Fellows Drive in front of the
manor destroys the view of this imposing historic listed
building.
- The construction would cause campus-wide turmoil.
Our concerns are summarized in the following marked-up campus
map:
The Alternate Proposal
A number of residents have developed an alternate proposal and
submitted it to Saratoga City for consideration as part of the
Environmental Impact Review. This proposal provides the same
number of apartments, but places them at the edge of the campus.
It also includes a new, state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility.
Our proposal is illustrated in the following campus map:
The key features of our proposal are to
- Repurpose building C as a Skilled Nursing Facility
(Building C’)
- Replace the existing health center by a new apartment block
(building D)
We retain the Fitness Center extension and new emergency access
from the PRS proposal unchanged.
The advantages of our proposal over the PRS proposal include:
- The construction of a single residential block, which saves
costs and is less disruptive than building three residential
blocks.
- The provision of a Skilled Nursing Facility adjacent to a new
proposed emergency access from Chester Road, facilitating
emergency evacuation from the campus.
- The re-use of the existing Health Center footprint for the new
residential block, which enables re-use of existing services and
simplifies permitting.
- Construction located away from the center of campus, thus
causing less disruption.
Our proposal, though developed by just a few residents, has
rapidly received wide support from among the SRC residents. Of the
88% of the Independent Living Residents responding to a
questionnaire sent from the Residents’ Council at the end of 2021,
76% oppose PRS plan and, in response to a separate question, 76 %
support our proposal. See here for a full report of the
questionnaire results.
Do you support the Alternate Proposal? If so, then please click or tap here
to send us an email and let us know and please send your comments to the City.
Thank you.
Preserve SRC Campus is an informal organization whose members
are residents in the Saratoga Retirement Community
This page last updated on March 14th, 2022. Any
problems with this web page? Please email the administrator.
©2022 Preserve SRC Campus. All rights reserved.
shows proposed buildings that we feel destroy the heart of the campus, and
shows a building that is too large and impacts nearby trees