City looks at Pacifica as possible senior center

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Surf City seniors hoping for a new gathering place

may find one in a bankrupt hospital.

City officials have set aside $150,000 to study the feasibility of

turning the former Pacifica Hospital and Tower, at 18800 Delaware St.,

into an expanded senior center. Though the project is still in its

infancy, city officials will hire consultants to study parking, property

costs and ventilation, the presence of asbestos, as well as an

architecturalreport and evaluation of building safety systems.

The city’s preliminary plan is to purchase the five acres comprising

Pacifica’s tower and hospital buildings, as well as an aquatic facility

and a two-acre park. Ron Hagan, director of community services, said if

consultants prove the plan feasible, the hospital building would be

demolished and replaced with a large multipurpose room and parking lot,

while the first two floors of the tower would house an additional

multipurpose room, city senior services and outreach programs.

City officials said the remaining floors could be leased for office

and medical-use space consistent with the city’s specific plan for the

area. The community and senior aquatic programs could also be held at the

site.

“From the city’s perspective, the Pacifica Towers property is an ideal

location because it’s surrounded by a number of nearby services,” Hagan

said. “There’s the Five Points center for commercial uses, access to

public transportation and it is surrounded by senior housing.”

For decades, seniors have flocked to the Michael E. Rodgers Seniors’

Center for social and support services. But in 1998, city officials began

looking for ways to expand the two-acre center, at the corner of 17th

Street and Orange Avenue.

“Some 6,000 people use the senior center each month, including

veterans and other groups,” said Dale Dunn, a member of the city’s

Council on Aging board of directors. “These facilities, [are] used for

meetings, activities and meals, and there’s far more demand then there is

room.”

Sometimes space is rented to non-senior groups for events, taking up

much-needed activity space, he added.

City officials say it will take about 21,000 square feet to provide

the services needed by seniors, about twice that available at the Rodgers

site. Building a new center from scratch would cost about $10 million in

redevelopment and community development funds, none of which is

available, and modifying closed school sites or the current center would

cause unacceptable impacts to surrounding neighborhoods, they added.

Dunn, 72, said that seniors are living longer these days and continue

to be socially active in their later years.

“The 85 years and older population is the fastest-growing segment of

the senior population here, and it’s important that it has a safe

environment for various activities,” he added.

City officials won’t have the results from the feasibility study until

May, and even then property may have already been sold or found

unworkable for the project.

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