Controversial senior living complex denied by Clovis City Council

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Developers and residents, of the City of Clovis, came head to head at tonight's city council meeting over senior housing. In tonight's vote, City Council denied plans to move forward with a 112 unit assisted living complex.

After an hours-long meeting of deliberation last week pushed a continuation to this week, Council denied the project that would have moved into the lot on Nees east of Willow.

City planner Bryan Araki says this isn't the first time. Back in 2014, the same developers were denied for a similar project.

He says, "this project started as a three-story building with much higher unit counts and access points to Kenosha and Nees avenue. There were several versions of site plans that had come through based on neighborhood comments, so there was a lot of outreach initially."

According to the City, there wasn't enough outreach this time around. Araki adds, "the neighborhood interaction is important to the City of Clovis. They're the residents. The city staff is not here to work for the developers. We're here to work for the community."

The vote approved a denial without prejudice, meaning O'Brien development can come back with a proposal within the year should they address density, traffic, access to neighborhood roads and other neighborhood concerns.

Matt O'Brien says, "It sounds like the council definitely wants to see a project go in there, and they're fairly sure the neighbors want to have input as well. With that, there may be a possibility to get something there that is a good fit."

He adds it is not a simple process, "It definitely requires quite a bit more meeting with an architect, management company, feasibility studies and seeing what we can design that still makes sense and provides the amenities that make the community unique and competitive."

He has yet to decide whether he'll bring the proposal back to the city.