Fullerton : ‘Life-Care’ Facility for the Elderly Approved

The well-to-do elderly may have a new home they can move into in a couple of years, following the City Council’s approval this week of a senior citizens’ housing project.

Known as a “life-care” facility, the planned community for affluent elderly people will provide them with a guarantee of lifetime care, including medical facilities for the seriously ill.

The council Tuesday night approved plans for the $60-million development, which includes housing ranging from villas for active residents to nursing facilities for the ill.

Maynard Kambak, who represents the developer, CoreCare Inc., said ground breaking will probably occur in a year, and construction on what is now a 35.5-acre oil field in the city’s East Coyote Hills would take at least another year, he said.

CoreCare Inc. is a consortium of 75 local doctors who plan to contract with Retirement Centers of America, a division of Avon Products, to manage the facility.

Life-care communities, which are state-regulated, are financed by steep entrance fees and monthly charges. In this project, the entrance fee would range between $75,000 and $250,000 and monthly charges would be from $900 to $2,000, Kambak said.

About 100 neighboring homeowners attended Tuesday’s meeting to voice various objections to the plan, including what they said was a lack of adequate notice.