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Mounds View Planning Commission August 4, 1999 Regular Meeting Page 6 • directors he had spoken with, all considered a staff of 14 to be somewhat light, depending upon the Alzheimer's factor and the degree of the care provided. Mr. Carroll stated he had determined some of his information regarding state licensing requirements from talking to the managers and executive directors of the facilities themselves. He stated that there is a wide range of services offered by facilities that refer to themselves as assisted living. He stated some facilities at the lower end of the assistance spectrum basically provide an apartment in which to live. He stated the other end of the spectrum involves people who are more disabled, and these facilities provide all meals,housekeeping services, physical therapy on site, as well as transportation, counseling,and assistance with medications. He stated these facilities have staffing levels at a higher ratio. He stated that it would be useful to gain as much information as possible, regarding the care the proposed facility would provide, as this directly relates to the staffing requirements. Commissioner Berke stated this was his conclusion as well. He stated that, in preparing his survey, he had attempted to eliminate the Detox Center type of facilities. He stated the employee to bed ratios were considerably higher, even for the lighter care,than what was originally proposed by the applicant. Commissioner Berke stated he had attempted to determine how many parking spaces the facilities actually had, and a large number of the facilities did not know. He added that some of those who indicated no problems with parking were shared facilities and had access to overflow parking. Mr. Carroll stated that he also had difficulty identifying the parking through the institutions. He stated that the site Commissioner Berke had contacted was an example of continuous care, where the residents start out with independent living, progress to assisted living and then nursing home care. He explained they provide the entire range of services, and share the same parking, which makes it difficult to determine the actual parking attributable to assisted living. He stated that he had found a facility that shared parking with a college located across the street, and another with an adjacent grocery store whose parking lot they shared. Commissioner Berke stated that the key to determining the parking requirements was to determine the staff,as they would all require parking facilities,then adding an adequate percentage for visitors. Mr. Carroll stated the staffing was also a complicated analysis. He explained that the facilities had full- time and part-time employees, different shifts, different staffing levels per shift, and outside consultants. He stated that he based his determination upon the most people on site, during any shift. Commissioner Berke stated that he had gained a general consensus of what most minimum health care or assisted living care facilities require in regard to staffing, which is 17 support people, in addition to the number of nurses or staff required per bed. Mr. Carroll inquired if this represented 17 people per shift. Commissioner Berke stated that these were categories, with a combination of people in each category to run the facilities. Mr. Carroll stated that he would not dispute that amount. He added that he had also received some high staffing levels, until he began questioning what they were comprised of. He stated some facilities indicated they had 40 employees, but actually had 6 or 7 on site at any given time. He stated, of the 40 employees, two-thirds might be full-time, one-third part-time, and • of the full-time staff, not all are on site all of the time.