11/4/2009 9:25:29 AM

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By Jeffrey Pieters

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

A final plan to expand Samaritan Bethany's senior housing campus near downtown Rochester won unanimous city council approval on Monday.

	By the numbers 1922: Year that Samaritan Convalescent Hospital and Hotel of Rochester began its operation at 25 Seventh St. N.W. 182: Capacity for skilled nursing care residents after the expansion. 7: Sponsoring churches that help support Samaritan Bethany. The founding congregation is Peace United Church of Christ.

The plan calls for adding two additions -- a three-story building and a five-story building -- just west of the Super America store at Seventh Street and North Broadway. Construction might start in December.

The project also includes a renovation of the nursing home complex.

The project is intended to consolidate the Seventh Street campus with Samaritan Bethany's facilities near Assisi Heights in northwest Rochester.

The council approved the final plan and a conditional-use permit for two new parking lots, with 44 spaces, one block north of its campus.

Neighbor Andy Lucas told council members that the location of one parking lot, across Second Avenue from Goose Egg Park, was "not appropriate." Two trees were removed without permission, he said, and the parking lots would reduce the neighborhood's supply of affordable housing.

Officials said the trees will have to be replaced and that the city will require landscaping to soften the appearance of the parking lots.

Andy Masterpole of Yaggy Colby, representing Samaritan Bethany, said the parking lots "will be well screened from the neighborhood." The lots will be added next year, he said.

According to information on Samaritan Bethany's Web site, the relocation and renovation project will result in 182 skilled nursing care residences in 14 households. It will increase the number of private rooms.

The remodeling will also expand Samaritan Bethany's short-term rehabilitation facility to 41 private rooms and add a 16-resident memory care assisted-living center.

The Seventh Street campus dates to 1922, when it was established and operated by the men's fellowship at nearby Peace United Church of Christ.

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