But it's not. The run-down gas station and growing weeds are slated to become senior homes and a public park.

Although the project is still being refined, the goal is to turn the 2.8 acres into a 130-unit assisted-living community for seniors, said land-use consultant Erik Schoennauer.

The developer, S.L. Start, specializes in senior residential care facilities, and Schoennauer said the developer plans to add another senior housing project to Willow Glen.

The facility, Harbor Crest Estates, will serve residents 75 years old and older who need a certain level of living assistance.

"We're in between a retirement home and a convalescent hospital," Schoennauer said.

The facility will have a dining hall, fitness center with a swimming pool, health spa, walking paths, 156 on-site parking spaces mostly as underground parking and transit shuttles available for people who do not drive.

"The strength of the location is there is a large senior-citizen population in that 5-mile radius," Schoennauer said.

He added that the 2000 U.S. Census showed that 30,000 seniors live in an area with fewer than 400 licensed assisted-living units.

"It's especially needed in the Willow Glen area where there are a lot of longtime residents who like living in this community," he said.

Schoennauer said the developer worked with the project's Meridian Avenue neighbors, the Casa de Willow Glen Homeowner's Association, on the design of the project.

Casa de Willow Glen Homeowner's Association President Steve Wolowitz said his association supported the project because the developer was responsive to the homeowners' issues.

After a meeting to discuss the project, homeowners liked the basic idea of senior housing, but wanted greater setbacks from the property. Wolowitz said that a week later the developer flew the architect in from Spokane, Wash., to hear the neighbors' concerns and then redrew the plans.

Wolowitz said that he and other residents had heard in the past that the site might become offices or apartments, but "a well-run, nicely built senior home seemed to be a good alternative," he said.

District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager agreed that the senior housing project would be beneficial to the community and was a "great example of developers working with the neighborhood to plan the project," Yeager said.

"There have been some disastrous proposals for that site," Yeager said. "I was always very nervous about that spot and am thrilled that it worked out."

At a Nov. 3, 2003, community meeting, Schoennauer said residents were eager to see the vacant lot and the gas station cleaned up. In place of blight, a Mediterranean-style facility with a courtyard, balconies and landscaping will occupy the corner.

The senior housing project is compatible with the two-story Casa de Willow Glen townhomes' height, Schoennauer said.

Harbor Crest Estates will consist of five buildings of one, three and four stories, with the shorter buildings located on the north side facing the townhomes and also on the west side, where the proposed city park will be built.

Because this is a senior housing development located next to a transit corridor—the bus line on Meridian Avenue and the future site of the Fruitdale light-rail station, 1,200 feet away from the project—the developer is permitted to construct higher-density housing.

The city also does not require park impact fees or land donated for future park use, because the development is being built for senior use. But S.L. Start donated 10,000 square feet to city-owned land to create a half-acre park, Schoennauer said.

Besides the park, another probable change will be the privatizing of McKinley Avenue east of St. Elizabeth Drive. Because the street ends at the development, the city is asking the builders to create a private driveway and maintain it, Schoennauer said.

The San Jose Planning Commission unanimously approved the zoning change from commercial pedestrian and multiple residence to planned development, with James Zito absent, on Jan. 28. The San

Jose City Council approved the proposal on Feb. 3. No date for a public hearing for the planned development permit has been set.

"We're just taking a little bit of time to refine the design," Schoennauer said. "We hope in the coming weeks to finalize it."