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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 21 Sisters senior living facilities in limbo By Jim Cornelius News Editor Building permits have been ready to pick up at City Hall since summer of 2015 for developer Mark Adolf and Pinnacle Alliance Group’s planned senior assisted-living facility on property adjacent to Sisters’ post office. They have never been picked up, despite repeated assurances from Adolf that the project was on track. Now Adolf has been hit with a consent order from the Washington Department of Financial Institutions Securities Division requiring that he cease and desist from multiple violations associated with his efforts to finance an assisted-living project in Sisters. A competing project at McKenzie Meadows Village (MMV) — plans for which date back to 2011 — is now off the table. “We pulled the plug,” said Kevin Cox of owner of Ageia Health Services, who was brought on board in 2015 after the McKenzie Meadows Village partners — the Reed, Willitts and Kallberg fami- lies of Sisters — declined to renew a contract with Adolf, who had spearheaded their effort to build a facility at the west end of Sisters near Sisters High School since 2009. Adolf filed land-use appeals against the MMV project and filed suit against Cox and Ageia Health Services for allegedly steal- ing his plans That suit was settled, because he was unwilling to continue to pay ongoing legal bills, Cox told The Nugget. “It was a half-a-million- dollar lesson for me,” Cox said of the now-defunct MMV project. “I spent half a million dollars, half of that being legal (between land-use actions and the lawsuit).” Adolf did not respond by press time to inquiries from The Nugget regarding the sta- tus of his project, but given the circumstances it does not appear that any large-scale facility is on the near horizon. City of Sisters Community Development Director Patrick Davenport concurred that no project appears imminent. “As far as the facility — it looks like we’re quite a ways from getting one,” he told The Nugget. More than the senior- living facilities are in limbo. The annexation agreement between MMV and the City of Sisters requires that the senior-living facility be developed before any other aspect of the project can get underway — including other housing. “We don’t know what the future holds,” Bill Willitts told The Nugget. “We know we have to start all over. We have to start from square one.” Davenport said that the City and MMV are trying to work out a way forward. “That’s something we’re trying to work out with our legal team and their legal team, so if they want to do that (move forward with other aspects of the development) we can figure out what that looks like,” Davenport said. Willitts said that the part- ners believe that Adolf might continue to appeal any land- use action on their part. “If we do assisted liv- ing, it’s a certainty,” he said. “If it’s residential, it’s a possibility.” Something will have to be worked out at some stage, because the annexation agree- ment “goes with the land” and would apply to anyone trying to develop the property. PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS The school-based health clinic is the only piece of McKenzie Meadows Village that has gotten off the ground in over 15 years. Davenport said that the City could revise the annexa- tion agreement or — since the property has long been annexed into the city limits — they could devise a develop- ment agreement to supersede the annexation agreement. So far, despite years of planning and hearings, the only development on the property has been a school- based health clinic. “It’s been quite a trail that hasn’t gone very far,” Davenport said. Willitts is looking back on a difficult 15-year process. “We thought we might have an assisted-living facil- ity for Cliff Clemens (a lead- ing Sisters citizen who died in 2008 at the age of 101),” Willitts said. “That was our battle cry.” Davenport said that the City is committed to finding a way forward. “We want that property to be developed. We need hous- ing; it’s right next to the high school. We want something to happen there. We’ll keep working on it.” After 15 years and many battles, Willitts said, “I think we’re going to take the course of least resistance, whatever that is.” After multiple inquiries by phone and email by The Nugget, Mark Adolf declined to answer questions in regard to the status of his project. Please Connect Your Ray’s All Access Rewards Program Account to Furry Friends Foundation It’s FREE and we get 1% back on your purchases. It’s an easy and great way to donate! 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