Nearly 12 months after first presenting its proposed additions to the City Planning Commission, The Osborn Home will return for another meeting Tuesday, with hopes of addressing one of the board’s final concerns.
The senior living facility, which completed its last major update more than 20 years ago, is seeking to build several new facilities, including independent living apartment buildings, an assisted living building, wellness amenity building, and cottages.
One of the final concerns of the proposed construction is the impact on the area’s water drainage. “Near the southwest basin at the intersection of Osborn Road and Theall Road, runoff has been observed reaching the stone wall and discharging toward the roadway during heavier storm events,” says an annotation on one of the architectural plans.
The changes presented at the next commission meeting, which is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Locust Avenue Firehouse, are expected “to better manage this condition.”
“As part of the technical review of the stormwater system, LaBella (the commission’s engineering consultant) requested The Osborn conduct additional field testing of soils,” says a May 5 letter to the commission from Steven Wrabel, a partner at the law firm representing The Osborn. “Based on the field data, The Osborn has upgraded its stormwater mitigation plans to satisfy LaBella’s comments. Notably, the Applicant has incorporated an additional stormwater basin south of the existing cottages, which will provide additional stormwater detention and infiltration. This will allow the existing basin in the southwest corner of the Site to be unimpacted by the Project (though The Osborn still proposes to provide previously discussed additional flood mitigation to address existing conditions).
“An underground infiltration chamber has also been added near the northern end of the Site, which will provide infiltration for a portion of the existing skilled nursing building, which does not currently benefit from any such mitigation measure. The updates to the stormwater mitigation plans can all be achieved without impacts to any other proposed utilities or programming.”
While the hope is these changes move the proposal closer to approval, Wrabel’s letter makes it clear The Osborn doesn’t expect to receive the green light for construction at this week’s meeting.
“It is anticipated that LaBella will need to complete its final review of these materials, but we are providing them to the Commission as an update on The Osborn’s progress,” Wrabel wrote.
View Wrabel’s letter and proposed architectural plans:
Other items on this week’s Planning Commission agenda:
- 632 Milton Road: Removal of existing FEMA-non-compliant single-family residence and construction of new single-family flood-zone-compliant residence.
- Antique Garage – Outdoor Dining Permit (Modification): Request for nine outdoor dining tables and 36 chairs.
