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.
City Council approves the SRC Expansion Proposal
We are deeply disappointed that the City Council
approved the SRC Expansion Proposal at its meeting on June 5th.
It seems that considerations of the State-imposed mandate that
the City increase its housing capacity, and the fears of losing
control if the City fails, weighed more heavily on the
Councilors than the destruction of the quality of life for three
hundred Saratoga citizens in their retirement and the
desecration of the SRC Campus with loss of open space and many
mature and protected trees.
The hard work in campaigning against the proposal by most of the
residents, supported by other Saratoga citizens, has been
outstanding. We thank you all.
Planning Commission Endorses PRS Proposal for SRC
Expansion
At it meeting on May 8th, the Planning Commission spent three and a
half hours on presentations and discussions concerning the PRS
proposal for the expansion of SRC, to which the vast majority of SRC
Independent Living residents object. At the end of the meeting the
Planning Commission City Staff Officer ruled that motions that would
"cherry pick" from among the various buildings are not permissible,
and that the Commission would have to have an up-or-down vote on the
entire proposal (Alternative 4). This ruled our further
consideration our compromise proposal, as well as other compromise
possibiities that were being discussed. The Commission voted (with
obvious great difficulty from several members of the Commission) to
forward the Master Plan proposal to the City for approval. There was
about an hour of oral presentations, nearly all against the PRS
proposal. Here
is a recording of the oral submissions from members of the
Preserve SRC Campus Interest Group. Here
is a recording of the complete meeting.
Letter to the Odd Fellows Home of California Board of
Directors
Bob Berglund, President of the SRC Residents' Council, sent this
letter to the Odd Fellows Home of California Board of
Directors on December 7th, 2023. The letter points out that 87% of
the Independent Living Residents oppose the PRS proposed expansion,
and describes the Single Building compromise proposal. (i.e Building
C in the PRS proposal). See below for further
details of the Single Building proposal.
Courage in Leadership Award
Congratulations to Preserve Coordinator Tsing Bardin
on being awarded the City of Saratoga's 2023 Courage in Leadership
Award. The photo shows Tsing and other Preserve SRC Campus
supporters and was taken at the award ceremony held on September
9th, 2023.
Group overview
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.
When the expansion proposal was first announced, a number of
residents developed an Alternate Proposal which
they submitted to Saratoga City for consideration as part of the
Environmental Impact Review (EIR).
Now that the Draft EIR has been published and extensively commented
on, these residents have updated and simplified their proposal (the
Updated Alternative Proposal). Do you support
the Alternate Proposals? 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 2021: The City
held a Community Meeting on November 16th 2021 and
the EIR Public Scoping Meeting on December 9th 2021.
Videos of both meetings are on the City
Comment tab.
The Saratoga
Falcon published an article on December 3rd 2021 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 (see the arborist's report and related photographs at the
bottom of the City
submissions tab.
- 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 Updated PRS Proposal
PRS have submitted an update as an alternative to be considered
during the EIR review. Their alternative responds to criticisms
that Building B destroys the view of the historic manor. So in
this proposal, they no longer include Building B and they remove
two cottages, replacing them by a new Building D on the entrance
car park and the site of the first two cottages on West Cottages
Drive, as shown on this plan:
The Updated
Alternate Proposal
The updated Alternative Proposal (September 2023) only adds one
building to the campus, in a location which has minimal impact on
the overall campus ambience and environment. The updated proposal
is illustrated in the following campus map, which also shows the
buildings in the PRS proposal which we do not wish to see
constructed:
The key features of the updated proposal are:
- It provides a strictly limited expansion plan for our campus,
supporting at least 20 new apartments;
- It preserves the view of the historical building – the Manor;
- It minimizes the the number of tress that have to be removed
and limits them to younger, less-mature, trees;
- It preserves the outdoor green space and recreational area,
including the Odd Fellows Park;
- It minimizes construction disruption and health hazards to
senior residents’ lives [avg. age 85] during construction years;
- We ask for a solid schedule that can be monitored for the
renovation of the existing Skilled Nursing Facility.
The Initial Alternate Proposal (June
2021)
A number of residents 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 the initial proposal are to
- Re-purpose 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 Proposals? 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 June 7th 2024. Any
problems with this web page? Please email the administrator.
©2024 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