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Medford assisted-living center plans expansion Ridgeview project adds rooms for nonseniors who require special care By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune The region's only assisted-living facility for nonsenior adults will add 21 rooms to accommodate a waiting list after the Medford Planning Commission's approval Thursday. Ridgeview Assisted Living on Golf View Drive will start construction immediately on the 12,000-square-foot addition, said owner John Schleining. Ridgeview is part of the 31-acre Alderwood mixed-used planned development that includes office buildings on Alameda Street and State Street and 24 single-family residences on Golf View Drive, said Dennis Hoffbuhr, land use planner hired by Ridgeview. Plans call for a 130-room congregate care facility and 200 condominiums within five years. Ridgeview's addition will meet an immediate need in the community, the owner said. "There are 16 people with multiple sclerosis and other problems that have no place to live and the minute this addition is done, they will move in," Schleining said. "This helps people in the community who need help the most - young people who may have had a stroke and need care but don't fit in with 80-year-olds." Three neighbors signed a letter to the Planning Commission opposing the addition. "The present and proposed expansion of Ridgeview does not provide outdoor recreation areas," wrote Beverly Sandblast, Richard Fisher and Paula Hoffman, residents of Hidden Springs Drive and Edgewater Drive. "This has forced the clients to explore the neighboring streets. "We have observed numerous clients with mobility concerns in the street right-of-way as sidewalks do not exist in several of the adjacent area," they wrote. Planning Commissioner Robert Tull said the problem would likely resolve itself when sidewalks are built on Alameda. Hoffbuhr said he recently moved his business, Hoffbuhr and Associates, to the office building on Alameda near the assisted living facility. "I've been there a month and I have not observed (people walking in the roadway)," Hoffbuhr said. "Some of the people are independent and they are certainly residents of the neighborhood and have the right to walk through the neighborhood." Opened nearly a year ago, Ridgeview's original 30 units filled faster than any other assisted living facility in Oregon, wrote owner Dan Gregory. "Ridgeview is the only facility that specializes in a population of younger adults with disabilities," wrote Don Bruland, director of senior and disability services for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. "(We are) very pleased with the care provided by the facility." The Planning Commission voted to send the application to an architectural review committee, but reversed its vote and approved the application. "There has been substantial review and this is just an addition to the building," Medford attorney John Hassen told commissioners. "It would delay this project another two or three months if you send it back for architectural review." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.