What residents are saying
Survey of Residents
In November 2021, the SRC Residents' Council sent a questionnaire to
all CCRC1 residents to solicit the residents' feelings
regarding expansion at SRC. The following pdf files, posted by kind
permission of Bev Lenihan, SRC Residents' Council President, give
the report on the survey and its four appendices:
Report on the SRC Expansion Survey
Appendix
1, Detailed analysis of responses
Appendix 2, Responses by Residential Area
Appendix
3, Questionnaire and Attachments
Appendix
4, Residents' Comments Detail
- CCRC is an acronym meaning Continuing Care Retirement
Community. These senior living communities are
designed for individuals that want to remain in a single
location throughout the remainder of their retirement years
even as their care needs change. At the time of the survey,
there were 247 CCRC residents living in SRC, 186 of whom
lived in Independent Living accommodation.
Residents' comments to the Preserve SRC Campus
group
We have received well over 100 message from Saratoga Retirement
Community residents saying that they support the Alternative Plan.
We give below a selection of the comments that the residents have
made.
I support the Residents plan. It “preserves” the trees and park,
a respect for nature that I admired when moving to SRC. It gives us
a functional Health Center sooner (versus 10 years of construction.)
It was designed by people who live here, not by a for profit
organization. It adds features ignored by the PRS plan (putting
buildings in vacant space versus covering architectural and natural
elements we value). Therefore, I should think PRS would be relieved
to have our input. We are the marketing experts who considered other
venues before moving here. Thank you, Preserve SRC Group, for your
formidable contribution.
Congratulations on a definitely improved SRC Expansion proposal.
The Residents’ Alternative plan is much better than the PRS'
plan. It preserves our beautiful campus, while PRS’ plan will
PERMANENTLY eliminate all the remaining green open space! Can we
afford losing this precious little open space and the majestic
mature trees? We need to think long term future of SRC. We have to
be in a sustainable and competitive market, please do not
short-change our unique characteristic campus. And we need to have a
modernize, state-of-art skilled nursing facility to stay
competitive. Alternative plan addresses all these problems.
We have lived here for only 6 weeks, and this was the first we
saw of either plan — so thank you for your excellent presentation.
It seems to us that preferring the Residents’ Alternative plan is a
no-brainer, and we strongly support it — for the following reasons:
• It is far less intrusive; having fewer building sites means that
the entire campus won’t be in turmoil endlessly.
• It makes use of the large footprint of the present Health Care
Center, and it avoids doing major renovations while residents are
living there (this could be us, and I can’t imagine that would be a
pleasant experience).
• It preserves the bucolic atmosphere and open-air refuges by saving
large trees and the historic park, and it ensures the visual impact
of the iconic Manor, the unique centerpiece that sets this community
apart from others.
• Importantly, the Residents' plan avoids creating the impression of
an overbuilt campus, with buildings shoe-horned into every available
free space—a visual turn-off that would be inevitable. Crowding also
signifies caving in to monetary motives.
• Diminishing or destroying the rural charms of its suburban
location would put SRC in competition with communities in urban
settings—but without their benefits (walkable shopping, restaurants,
etc.). That is a choice we made consciously. Thank you for your hard
work, your thorough research, and your impressive solutions,
The PRS plan was put together by a group of people who don't
live at SRC. They seem indifferent to the feelings of the residents
and the reasons they chose SRC over other potential locations for
their retirement years. To purposely set out to destroy the bucolic
campus, which is consistent with the City of Saratoga's philosophy
of rural living and the Odd Fellow's long history, is a strange
approach for a responsible management company. The Residents'
Alternative includes these factors in their plan and provide better
results for SRC sustainability.
I am a new resident of the Saratoga Retirement Community (SRC)
and chose to move here from my Saratoga home of 38 years partly
because of the peaceful and beautiful campus that houses the
residents. Saratoga calls itself The City of Trees and I am against
removing 60 of those mature trees to accommodate an enlargement. In
this time of global warming, we should be planting MORE trees to
offset the increase in carbon that is chocking our atmosphere. I am
also against putting a building in front of the historic manor
building. It would spoil the views both looking outward and inward
and ruin the stunning entrance to this campus.
I am totally in favor of the alternative proposal which the
residents have come up with to preserve the beauty of this campus
and it’s valuable trees. Please consider these points as you study
the two proposals.
I support the Preserve plan. Well thought out and well
presented.
I support the Residents’ Alternative plan, it is so much better.
(We) support the Resident's Alternative Plan, and we are not
happy with the PRS plan. I attended the Zoom session and was very
impressed with the thought and work put into this alternative plan
by the group. Thank you for all of your effort.
I support the resident's alternative plan. It makes perfect
sense.
I want to thank the people that worked on the Alternative plan
for the development of SRC. I am all for this plan as it helps to
keep us rural with open space.
Great Alternative Plan! Very well thought out! Thank you for
your time in putting this together.
Yes, I enthusiastically support your alternative plan. The PRS
plan is being built piecemeal because, I think, they are going to
use the money we pay each year for funding. With interest rates so
low, the money for the construction of the new Health Center could
be borrowed at a very low rate.
Yes, I support the alternative plan, and I am firmly opposed to
the PRS plan as presently presented.
I’m in favor of the expansion plans proposed by the residents
committee. The plan proposed by PRS will ruin the appearance and
destroy the open space of our wonderful campus and should not
proceed.
Yes I support your plan and thank you for all of the work and
planning you all have done. I think that even the city should be
more in favor of the plan that you are proposing. It makes so much
sense to do it this way.
We support the Preserve SRC Alternative Plan 100%
Yesterday’s “Preserve SRC” presentation was well done, very
informative, and quite compelling.
I absolutely support the plan. Thank you for all the hard work
and for the courage to develop the plan. It is very impressive and a
much better alternative to PRS' plan.
Thank you for a compelling presentation and a well thought-out
plan. The residents’ plan has many features that overcome major
deficits in the PRS plan. Please count on my enthusiastic support.
I agree with new health center plan.
I thought your presentation was well done. You made some very
good points regarding the Health Center and I like that there was
more green space left......AND the bocce court was still there!!
I definitely support the alternative plan.
Yes, I support the alternative expansion plan as far as it has
been described so far.
Yes,Yes, I approve of all the above. Save this beautiful campus.
I really do like your design and the positive approach you are
taking toward an effective solution for the long term.
Your presentation was very very good; I compliment all of you
and your work. I fully support your position for future expansion.
Bless you and thank you for the fight. PRS has the clout, money
and control and have proven they will use it time and time again.
Count the lawsuits and the acquisitions.
You are all to be greatly commended. For me the very best out
come when the dust has settled would be to see the Memorial Park
still a park: full of trees, greenery and no big buildings.
I was quite impressed with the alternative plan presented by the
"PreserveSRC" group. All their research & diligence was evident.
Combining that with the passion of existing residents makes a very,
very strong case for the OFHC to consider!
God bless you for all that you have accomplished! We are ready
to show up at the council meeting whenever that will occur!
A primary reason we chose SRC is its open beautiful campus. We
have been here 3 plus months . . . and the Future Planning edict
from PRS Oregon has undercut a primary reason for our selecting SRC.
The first Zoom session I saw from PRS on their expansion plan was a
full hour of PRS attacking what the residents have proposed. There
was no mention of working together; they just attacked the proposal
that has been offered by the residents.
- There was no indication that PRS wants to work with the
residents;
- PRS is not listening to input and responses from the
residents;
- Making the residents unhappy by attacking them doesn’t seem
like a good or effective strategy for PRS.
PRS appears to be driving their plan down the residents’ throats
Thank you for the excellent presentation on Tuesday. Your
efforts in creating the alternative plan and in organizing such a
good presentation are much appreciated.
You guys are outstanding & a big Thank You. Thank you for
the great presentation and all hard and important work you all put
into the Residents’ Alternative Plan. The plan was well thought out
in preserving our campus, localizing the construction area to the
East side of campus, and locating the New Health Center close to the
new entrance/exit. We will be at City Hall to support this plan and
hope that City Hall gives this plan a good consideration versus the
PRS plan.
I commend the effort of putting together the alternative plan.
The alternative plan has many advantages and benefits to the
residents and "mother nature". As a newbie at SRC I am missing quite
a bit of info about the history of the issue. As it looks to me, PRS
seemingly does not care much of the happiness of existing residents.
(This may work against renting to new residents, as I assume not
many of us will enthusiastically recommend a place that lost its
character.) Delaying building A by 7 years just delays the
pain, but does not solve any of the environmental issues related to
their original plan. As newcomers, we have been notified of the PRS
plan but this does not mean we like it or accept it, as it changes
the main attributes of SRC that attracted us to it.
Thanks for the informative presentation. We appreciate the time
and effort your group has put into this project and, based on
information currently available to us, prefer your plan to that of
PRS.
Well done. Today's presentation was so interesting, clear and
complete. The Alternative Plan has so many pluses and would save our
campus. The PRS Plan shows no regard for the SRC residents and would
ruin our campus. Your hard work and dedication are greatly
appreciated.
One of the reasons I came to live at SRC was its beautiful
grounds. I had wanted to love the Terraces of Los Altos where my
daughter has a home, but the campus was too small & bare. I
opted to move further away from her because the SRC campus is so
attractive. If SRC destroys our “green belt” so much will be lost —
and we won’t attract the type of folks that make our current lives
so enjoyable. The alternate plan seems a wonderful compromise — and
in fact addresses & solves other concerning issues in a most
reasonable way.
I think your plan is better than the PRS plan by far, but I
still prefer no plan!!! Thank you for all your work.
We feel we have an excellent quality of life right now at SRC,
which represents to us a standard which we compare anything else to.
We have the freedom to enjoy walking around the campus, and to
appreciate the views we have of the hillside and mountains in the
distance, the elegance of the beautiful old Manor building, and the
general park-like ambience of the campus. And of course the fun we
have in joining our friends in Bocce games in the central park. We
consider the existing central campus to be essential to the primary
enjoyment of the residents and the open space feeling of SRC.
In contrast it is easy to define the damage to our quality of life
if the central campus becomes a construction zone for several years.
The noise and dust of construction vehicles, the security issues
with trying to walk around with monster holes in the ground, traffic
jams at the entrances, and parking hassles when competing with
dozens of workers. This represents extensive affront to our quality
of life. The concentration of any new construction to the eastern
periphery of the campus would be an important mitigation to this
assault to our senses.
I am grateful you were willing to do the research and spend the
time to produce an excellent alternative expansion. If we can do
anything to help, please call on us!!!
Preserve SRC Campus is an informal organization whose members are
residents in the Saratoga Retirement Community
This page last updated on February 2nd, 2022. Any
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