Sammamish Slough graying

On any given day, you can spot Ann Vandergeld and Jean Thomas tending gardens around the East Riverside Drive area of Bothell.

Look a bit farther and you'll see other senior citizens walking the paths and sidewalks or enjoying benches along the Sammamish Slough, a scattering of wheelchairs and walkers sometimes visible.

"It's getting to be a senior-citizen town," said Vandergeld, a volunteer at the Northshore Senior Center, as she pulled weeds from a pathway this week.

In fact, more than 500 senior-housing units have been developed along this southern edge of downtown in the past six years — all within walking distance of one of the nation's busiest senior centers and a new $7 million senior wellness center.

The graying of this thriving Bothell neighborhood is no accident. It's the result of a decadelong effort that began with a senior center, built on a citizen's idea, and took off when the city approved an unusual zoning overlay for the area. The final result, said Bruce Blackburn, senior city planner, is "really cool."

"It's a tremendous asset," he said.

It began with the Northshore Senior Center, opened in 1992 along East Riverside Drive, and now believed to be the largest in the nation in terms of people served, said Marty Dennis, center director.

That senior center led to the eventual rise of a community wellness center across the street, which also focused on services for senior citizens.

A pedestrian bridge connecting the two buildings over East Riverside Drive is expected to open in the next few weeks. And then there are the hundreds of senior-housing units in the nearby area.

Blackburn credits a motivated businessman named Jim Phillips for that. Phillips approached the city and asked about changing the zoning to create a senior zone.

Phillips, who has lived most of his life in Bothell and once owned a downtown hardware store, owned property next to the then-new senior center.

When it opened, he recalled, he was initially dismayed because he thought the property might have been more profitably developed commercially.

"I was a little bit down," he said. But then he got to thinking about the needs of people like his parents and grandparents, he said, and began to think about senior housing.

Phillips visited more than 150 senior-housing centers, and at 52, sold everything he had to get started. He also began working his plan through the city.

"It took me 6 ½ years to get the city of Bothell to accept senior housing," Phillips said. But the city did act in 1999, creating a unique zoning category known as the Specialized Senior Housing Overlay zone, which encouraged the development of senior housing with the help of relaxed density requirements.

There were ongoing battles at first, including a court fight, but the state Court of Appeals ruled against a 1998 lawsuit challenging the special zone. Senior-housing development started the next year.

Phillips and his wife, Sharilyn, plus other investors, opened the first project, the 57-unit Riverside East, next to the senior center in June 2000.

Since then, a half-dozen other senior-housing facilities have opened nearby, and Blackburn said 92 percent of the overlay-zone property is gone, with only one more possible project expected.

The newest facility is the 120-unit Foundation House at Bothell, 17502 102nd Ave. N.E., just south of Riverside East and the Northshore Senior Center. Developed by the nonprofit Seattle Education Foundation, it began accepting tenants in November.

About 40 units are left at Foundation House, said Mary Henry, marketing associate. The independent-living facility is an example of how concepts of aging are changing, she said.

While the elderly once may have lived with their children or ended up in a nursing home, the development of what are called "assisted living" or "independent living" centers has become a major social factor in recent years, one that's expected to become even more crucial in the near future, as more than 75 million "baby boomers" born after World War II face their own aging.

At Foundation House, Henry opens the door to a one-bedroom unit with a sunny balcony on the south side, which would rent for $2,265 a month, including two meals a day and housekeeping in a building with such features as a library, fireplaces and a cloth-napkin dining room.

Other units go for up to $3,950 a month, she added, describing such prices as something of a bargain, considering services provided.

"We're pretty competitive because we're a nonprofit," she said.

When the special overlay was first considered, it was expected that 300 or 400 senior-housing units might be developed, but the concept has done far better than anticipated, Blackburn said.

"It's been incredibly successful," he said. "It's an example of what a city can do to encourage certain types of housing."

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com