A shuttered community hospital in San Clemente will soon be replaced by 250 homes for seniors, ending a long legal tug-of-war.
MemorialCare Health System, based in Fountain Valley, received city approval to redevelop the former San Clemente Hospital at 654 Camino De Los Mares into senior apartments and a medical building, the Orange County Register reported.
The studio and two-bedroom apartments will be built in two redeveloped hospital buildings of three and four stories. A third building will house a 7,500-square-foot health and urgent care center.
The MemorialCare project, proposed to the city in March, received pushback from a city design committee, its planning commission and some elected officials, which recommended it not be approved. Residents voiced concern about traffic and congestion, while some complained they would lose their views.
The apartment buildings exceed the city’s height limits, but MemorialCare took advantage of state rules overriding local requirements for senior or affordable housing projects.
Three council members supported the proposal and approved the project to finalize a settlement agreement that resulted from a court battle over what could happen at the old hospital site.
“This was an opportunity to get a mutually beneficial project done,” Councilmember Chris Duncan said.
He said adding senior living and affordable housing to the allowed uses for the hospital site helped San Clemente certify its housing element as demanded by the state. San Clemente must build nearly 1,000 more homes by 2030 to satisfy its housing goal.
Duncan said the project was “higher than he would like,” but said he “wasn’t willing to trash the project over potentially de-certifying our housing element and paying Memorial Care $180,000 in maintenance fees and end up back in litigation.”
MemorialCare closed the 73-bed San Clemente Hospital in 2016, saying it was unsustainable because of a lack of patients. That launched a years-long legal dispute over what to do with the hospital property.
The nonprofit healthcare system expects to break ground on the 6.3-acre hospital conversion by early next year.
— Dana Bartholomew
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