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Portland City Council on Thursday denied an appeal by the East Portland Neighborhood Association, a conglomerate of 13 East Portland neighborhoods, to prevent construction of a 10,500-square-foot home care facility on Southeast 174^th Avenue.

Members of the association claimed that the size and number of occupants of the facility, proposed by local residential care company Asa Care, would not be suitable for a residential zone. Bonny McKnight, chair of the Russell Neighborhood Association and the Citywide Land Use Group, said the area around 174^th Avenue does not have the proper transportation or commercial zoning to handle a large facility.

鈥淧roponents of this building are saying basically, 鈥楾hey (the patients) have no need for interaction; they don鈥檛 need to be close to transit; they don鈥檛 need to be close to a park or a small business district where they can shop or go to medical offices,鈥欌�� McKnight said. 鈥淚f we were to look at this and define it as clearly as it is, it鈥檚 a warehouse for people with a limited quality of life.鈥�

To show that the association wouldn’t oppose all medical facilities in the residential area, McKnight added that the Centennial Neighborhood already has a large percentage of the city鈥檚 group homes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not, 鈥業 don鈥檛 one of these in my backyard,鈥� she said. 鈥�(The neighbors have) proven it鈥檚 not about the facility, but about the quality of life that will be in that facility.鈥�

However, four of the five council members ruled that the facility is authorized under the city鈥檚 zoning code as 鈥済roup living with conditional use,鈥� a code that authorizes large structures in residential areas as long as they mitigate issues regarding their size.聽 Council members said it would meet these issues because it would be set back far from the street and there would be a large amount of landscaping surrounding it.

Tom Lewis, chair of the Centennial Community Association, said he disagrees with the ruling and said it could lead to large nursing facilities being built in other residential neighborhoods.

鈥淭he rest of the city doesn鈥檛 have this problem, but it could open the door to enable these facilities to be throughout the city, so we should pay attention,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o go to this length to use a multi-housing facility and pretend it looks just like the other (group home facilities in the area) is, as politicians would say, disingenuous.鈥�