Planned senior community gains initial approval for Tustin Legacy

The Tustin City Council took the first step toward adding senior housing at Tustin Legacy, a sprawling 1,600-acre development steadily overtaking the former Marine Corps Army Station site.

On Tuesday, councilmembers unanimously backed Clearwater at Tustin Legacy, a project that would add senior housing and assisted living services to one of the last parcels in the “Neighborhood D South” planning area off the southeast corners of Warner and Armstrong avenues.

“We’re very much focused on building a very cohesive community out in the Tustin Legacy,” said Mayor Pro Tem Ray Schnell. “We’re building it out in a very thoughtful, prescriptive way to serve the needs of a growing community, but also an aging community.”

Denver-based Confluent Senior Living aims to construct two buildings on the 6-acre plot of city-owned land. One 5-story tall building would dedicate 172 units to house an “active adult community.”

Twenty-six of those units would be income-restricted for lower income households.

A second building would be an assisted living and memory care facility with 103 units and 134 total beds. Services are poised to include help with bathing, meals and medication management. The memory care facility, which is described as a separate secure wing, seeks to offer staff trained to help residents suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

The Kennedy Commission, an affordable housing advocacy group, argued in a letter sent ahead of Tuesday’s meeting that councilmembers were trading too many concessions to the developer without enough affordable units in return.

“The city should add the 103 assisted living units…when evaluating the project’s affordable housing obligations,” wrote Cesar Covarrubias, the Kennedy Commission’s executive director. “Excluding these units from the calculation significantly reduces the affordable housing contribution associated with a project that would ultimately provide 275 residential units on city-owned land.”

Covarrubias claimed that Clearwater should be offering 41 affordable units, not 26, to meet Surplus Land Act requirements for 15% affordability.

Councilmember Lee Fink tangled with the Kennedy Commission’s assertion.

He asked Tustin senior planner Jorge Maldonado if the nonprofit made an error in tabulating the total number of units within the assisted living and memory care facility.

A report Maldonado gave earlier in the meeting outlined that 75 units in the second building would be for assisted living and 28 for memory care.

“The assisted living facility…is seen as an institutional use rather than a residential use,” Maldonado said.

Fink noted an appreciation for the Kennedy Commission’s concerns, but pressed further.

“That Surplus Land Act requirement for 15% applies only to the active living project and not the other project for the assisted care, right?” Fink asked Maldonado.

Maldonado agreed with Fink, who calculated the first building as offering 15% affordable units and 10% overall for the entire project.

Confluent Senior Living asked the council to approve a density bonus based on the affordable housing calculation, a conditional use permit for the assisted living building and the first reading of a development agreement.

The council voted unanimously to push the project forward. A second procedural vote at a future meeting will formally adopt the development agreement.

As a senior himself, Councilmember John Nielsen welcomed Clearwater.

“Something I’d like to see, which would be nice, is maybe looking at a little more integration between some of the senior projects we have in town already and this one to integrate a little more with the Tustin Senior Center,” he said. “I think doing that and creating more of a synergy there is very important.”

Clearwater at Tustin Legacy hopes to open its doors to residents within two years.

“I know the project almost didn’t happen and ultimately pulled through,” said Councilmember Ryan Gallagher. “It’s a great project, and it’s needed. These types of facilities are in high demand, and this is going to be one that’s beautifully done and is going to be in a very central location.”

After the council meeting, the Kennedy Commission stood by the concerns raised in its letter.

“We maintain that the Tustin project as a whole needs to comply with the 15% affordable housing requirement for lower income housing under the Surplus Land Act,” Covarrubias said. “It’s applicable to senior housing units and the assisted living units as proposed.”