Saratoga News

Odd Fellows session planned

By Clarence Cromwell

The Saratoga Planning Commission will hold an informal work session Jan. 9 to discuss plans to expand the Odd Fellows retirement complex with representatives of both the Odd Fellows organization and expansion opponents.

"The object of that kind of a session is to resolve issues," said Paul Curtis, community development director. "We would come out with solutions."

When the Planning Commission discussed the project's environmental impact report Nov. 8, members said they would postpone discussion of their concerns about the project until a later stage of the approvals process. Commissioners Dick Siegfried and Henry Murakami said at that meeting that their concerns were related more to the development than to the environmental impact report.

Jeff Schwartz, an opponent of the project, wanted to know why the commission wouldn't address those concerns on Dec. 13.

"We have heard this commission say, 'This issue or that issue will come back,' " Schwartz said. "Many of you spoke at the last meeting about a number of issues. Tonight you said nothing about traffic. You were very upset with a one-day traffic study."

The commissioners asked the Odd Fellows' consultants to address several concerns at the upcoming work session.

Siegfried asked Odd Fellows representatives to prove to the commission that the proposed development will attract renters. He also expressed concern that the city doesn't know whether the second phase of the project, once approved, will ever be built. The first phase entails improvements to the existing buildings. Phase two would build 19 senior duplexes and two new apartment buildings on the Odd Fellows property.

Murakami and Alfred Abshire suggested that the commission consider phase two of the project when the organization is prepared to build it. Odd Fellows officials have said they hope to do so within five years.

The Jan. 9 work session will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Senior Center, 19655 Allendale Ave.