Supervisors approve Bonsall Carefield Facility

The Bonsall Carefield Facility has been approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

The supervisors voted 5-0, Nov. 18, to approve a rezone for the land and to adopt a site plan and an environmental mitigated negative declaration. The zoning was changed from C30 (Office Professional) to C46 (Medical Center). The property had both a “C” height designator which limits the height of structures to 25 feet and a “G” height designator which has a limit of 35 feet, and the rezone also gave the entire property a “G” designator.

The 3.9-acre site is at the northeast corner of Mission Road and Thoroughbred Lane. The land is currently undeveloped. It has a land use designation of Office Professional, and C46 zoning is consistent with that designation. C46 zoning allows a group care facility with the approval of a site plan.

The assisted care facility will total 74,000 square feet. The 24 memory care units will be in a one-story building adjacent to Thoroughbred Lane while the rest of the facility will be two stories. The 74 single-occupant suites and six double-occupant suites will allow for 86 residents, and the Bonsall Carefield Facility will have a staff of 41 including a culinary director. The staff members will be divided into three shifts to provide full-time care.

Assisted care residents will be allowed to leave and return as they desire but would need their physician’s approval to leave the property, and all trips must be prescheduled and escorted. The residents could not drive to and from the property or have their own vehicle unless they obtain approval with a physician’s order.

Residents would be able to use an existing trail to travel northeast or southwest along Mission Road to access nearby commercial uses such as grocery stores, restaurants and banks. A total of 45 on-site parking spaces will accommodate residents, guests and employees. Access will be provided by a private driveway connecting to Mission Road. The property’s frontage along Mission Road is a cul-de-sac which serves two commercial zoned properties.

The architectural design is consistent with the Bonsall Community Plan and will utilize materials, colors and textures which are similar to surrounding structures, most notably the adjacent two-story shopping centers. The features will include terracotta roofing, accent walls at the entrances and building corners, and arched entrance frames with mission tile details. The exterior finish will consist of concrete in earth tone colors with decorative stone, steel and wood accents. The variation in color and finishes will divide the structure into separate components to reduce the visual prominence of the building.

Four Carefield Assisted Living and Memory Care facilities currently exist in California, so visitor data from those facilities was used to estimate the Bonsall visitor traffic. The existing facilities average approximately five visitors a day on weekdays and approximately 10 visitors on weekends. Visiting hours are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. A majority of weekday visits occur between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and most weekend visits are between noon and 1:30 p.m. or between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The number of visitors will not be limited, although a maximum of 50 total guests will be permitted to attend Bonsall Carefield Facility events.

Bonsall Carefield Facility anticipates hosting four events a month with three of those being held indoors. The outside event would typically be a themed barbecue where residents can invite guests to attend. The events will be between 3-4 p.m. or between 6-7 p.m. The indoor and outdoor events will not have any amplified music.

Bonsall Carefield Facility will be licensed by the California Department of Social Services as a residential care facility for the elderly, which allows for the housing of seniors over the age of 62. The community is based on a social rather than a clinical model of services and provides residents with assistance with the activities of daily living. Although state regulations do not require any on-site nursing presence for assisted living communities, Bonsall Carefield Facility will have a licensed nurse in-house at all times for medication management and oversight of the community care being delivered.

Visual impacts will be mitigated by setting back the facility from adjacent roads and by using landscaping as a buffer from the residential uses and public roads. The 150 proposed drought-tolerant trees will range in height from 10-40 feet at maturity. One of the proposed gardens will include a 1,600-square-foot turf area, and the remainder of the property’s vegetation will be drought-tolerant and fire-resistant shrubs, ground covers and trees. A 6-foot-high wall along the north side of state Route 76 will screen portions of the facility from public view.

The Rainbow Municipal Water District will provide water and sewer service to the facility while the North County Fire Protection District will provide emergency medical services. The nearest NCFPD station, Station 5, is approximately 750 feet south of the property. Both the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority and the North County Fire Protection District approved a fire protection plan for the Bonsall Carefield Facility, which will place fire department connections and two commercial hydrants on project access roads.

In April 2019, the Bonsall Community Sponsor Group voted 4-1, with one member absent and one seat vacant, to recommend the rezone and site plan. The sponsor group requested that no parking be visible from the frontage of the property on Mission Road, which will be accomplished by the 6-foot-high wall and the landscaping.

On Sept. 18, the county’s Planning Commission reviewed the project and voted 7-0 to recommend approval.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].