Streamwood hears proposal for senior housing
Streamwood could soon have new housing available for senior citizens, should a recent proposal to build a 140-unit independent and assisted living retirement community be approved by the village.
Mike Longfellow of Spectrum Retirement Communities said during a village board meeting Thursday that the company is interested in opening a new facility on roughly 9 acres on the north side of Schaumburg Road, just west of Bartlett Road and the forest preserve.
In 2006, the village approved the construction of a 24-home subdivision on the land, but it has remained vacant.
“This is in conformance with the comprehensive plan for the area ... and it also fulfills a long-standing goal of the village, which is to provide senior housing,” said Sharon Caddigan, the village’s planning director.
Longfellow said the community would consist of a two- and three-story building with studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units available for a monthly rental fee. There would also be a wing with 15 units dedicated to memory care.
“These are not nursing homes. This is much more residential in nature,” Longfellow said. “While it’s not the scale of a single-family residence, these are residences to the people that we serve, certainly in many cases the last residence that they’ll live in. It’s very important to us that we make it beautiful, that we give them a lot of activities, a lot of amenities.”
Spectrum is planning to own, develop and operate the community. It currently has 26 other communities in 10 states, including one in Cary and another in Lake Zurich.
The Streamwood building would be pushed as far east and north on the property as possible, leaving a buffer between the community and a subdivision to the west. There were originally plans to install a walking path from the community to Moraine Woods Park, but Caddigan said some residents expressed concerns over the path during a public hearing and it has since been removed.
The village board will take another look at the proposal during its June 6 meeting.