To the dismay of some residents, an workplace constructing near downtown Willow Glen and Lincoln Avenue is slated to change into an inpatient psychological well being facility.
The San Jose Planning Fee has unanimously authorized a conditional use allow that can enable LGTC Group, previously often called Los Gatos Remedy Heart, to run a 24-hour facility at 913 Willow St., serving as much as 48 sufferers at one time with what the medical group calls “mild pathologies,” reminiscent of consuming problems, melancholy and anxiousness.
“We really can’t talk about mental health advocacy if we don’t provide a place for people to achieve those services,” stated Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio, who additionally resides in Willow Glen. “I mean table stakes and I can say many people in this neighborhood have sought these services and received these services. It might not have been obviously here, because it doesn’t exist, but they’ve been receiving them somewhere.”
The brand new inpatient facility will mix the present 7,369-square-foot workplace constructing and a 2,548-square foot storage on two parcels close to the intersection of Willow Road and Chabrant Approach.
LGTC Group Government Director Eugene Tilman acknowledged the power won’t be used for short- or long-term residence and isn’t a walk-in, self-referred facility. As a substitute, sufferers will likely be solely transported from different places and discharged to different amenities.
“We do have outpatient offices within two miles, right there on Bascom Avenue to where we will shuttle the patients to and from,” Tilman stated. “Only people that meet strict medical criteria for admission would be admitted into the facility and discharged.”
LGTC operates a number of clinics and residential amenities within the South Bay, together with in Campbell, Sunnyvale, the Cambrian neighborhood in San Jose and an consuming dysfunction facility for teenagers in Willow Glen.
Due to its location and its standing as a locked facility, Tilman stated the property would have a safety system to watch the perimeter.
Tilman additionally famous that whereas the power will maintain 48 beds, it might seemingly not surpass 65-70% occupancy at anybody time.
However given the inpatient facility’s proposed location close to a neighborhood and different massive initiatives proposed within the neighborhood, it has raised considerations from residents about potential impacts.
“Inpatient services are not for mild pathologies,” resident Bryan Maldonado stated. “Those are for very severe pathologies. I’ve lived on the street since 2011 (and) the street is filled with children, and we’re very concerned with how the types of patients that are coming in and how they are going to manage that, security wise.”
Including to neighbors’ apprehension is a seven-story, 126-unit Builder’s Treatment venture proposed throughout the road at 940 Willow St. that locals have petitioned to cease over considerations about parking shortages, antiquated infrastructure and questions of safety. However the potential impacts of that proposal couldn’t be used within the deliberations concerning the inpatient facility as a result of they weren’t germane to its allow utility.
Tilman’s group has earlier success with changing workplace house into inpatient amenities in San Jose. In December 2023, the Planning Fee authorized an analogous 48-bed venture in Japantown at 738 N. First St. – a three-story constructing previously occupied by an insurance coverage company – regardless of related objections from close by residents.
Whereas the listening to for that Japantown facility acquired a considerable quantity of pushback, commissioners famous that that they had not heard any complaints for the reason that venture had been authorized.
Commissioner Justin Lardinois recalled feedback Oliverio made throughout the earlier listening to the place he famous how a variety of related inpatient care companies already quietly operated in neighborhoods, unbeknownst to residents, dispelling the notion they have been as disruptive as detractors made them out to be.
“If we let every neighborhood say we don’t want this here, we wouldn’t have these facilities anywhere in our city,” Lardinois stated. “In a city of almost a million people, a facility that serves less than 50 people is very small, and we need a lot of them throughout our community.”
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