POST FALLS - A 32-unit senior care facility called The Lodge at Riverside Harbor is proposed for the northeast corner of Cedar and Maplewood in Post Falls, the same site where a 33-unit apartment complex was denied last summer after neighbors' concerns.

Cliff Mort of Mort Construction is the applicant of the new senior care proposal.

A public hearing on Mort's request for a special-use permit to build the facility in a single-family residential zone will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The assisted living project will consist of two phases with one building per phase. Each building will have 16 separate living quarters on the 1.9-acre lot.

Most of the residents at the private facility won't have vehicles, thus limiting traffic impacts on the neighborhood, the project narrative states. In addition, each building will have two to three employees per shift for a total of four to six employees per shift after both phases are completed.

Traffic congestion, along with kids' safety with railroad tracks nearby, declining property values and not a good fit for the neighborhood, were concerns expressed over the apartment proposal by Kim Riley.

The property, currently vacant with a lot of mature pine trees, is owned by the Dennis B. Swartout Family Trust and is under a purchase contract by Mort Construction.

"(The project) will be architecturally designed to fit into the North Idaho landscape," the narrative states. "Timber and stone accents will be used to enhance the exterior of the building and complement its rustic elegance and create an aesthetic home that will blend with the existing neighborhood quite well."

The project will also serve a growing need for senior care facilities in the area, it states.

Access would be from Cedar. Concrete sidewalks would be constructed on both Maplewood and Cedar and provide for pedestrian circulation to and from the project.

Mort Construction, founded in 1985, has been a developer in the Mill River project and portions of Riverside Harbor. Cliff Mort could not be reached for comment.