Plans to convert an underused office building on Prospect Street — formerly part of the old Scripps Hospital — into a care facility for the memory-impaired has rallied next-door neighbors, who say they see their quality of life slipping away. The city’s Planning Commission, meanwhile, wants the developer and neighbors to hash out their differences and to come up with a set of conditions everyone can live with — a goal that hasn’t happened so far. Jeff Lubin, who has owned the property for the last five years, plans to convert the building at 484 Prospect St. into a facility for 56 high-functioning residents with memory problems. No medical care will be provided onsite. Northstar Senior Living would operate the facility, if approved. The Planning Commission heard both sides argue their case April 22 and asked the parties to return April 29 with a list of agreed-upon conditions. “I believe you want to develop a site that will make you a good neighbor, and it sounds like this conversation needs to continue,” Planning Commissioner Dennis Otsuji told the Lubin. It doesn’t appear the developer and condominium neighbors were able to agree on many conditions, however, despite an eleventh-hour meeting on April 27 and countless prior meetings. The developer agreed to no smoking on the premises, and agreed to mitigate odors from its commercial kitchen, according to attorney Julie Hamilton, who represents the homeowners. “We don’t have a whole lot of agreement right now,” Hamilton said. The La Jolla Community Planning Association — the community’s official planning advisory board — had deadlocked on the project and sent a “no recommendation” to the Planning Commission. The City Attorney’s Office told the Planning Commission that it couldn’t use the elderly population as a reason to deny the project. Seniors are a protected class, according to the City Attorney’s Office. In the mixed-use neighborhood along Prospect Street, the condominium owners live in close proximity to the office building. A 22-foot-wide alley separates some of the residents’ bedroom windows from the office building. Developers converted the 1920s-era Scripps Hospital into an office building, condominium complex and Timken research laboratory in the 1980s. The office building originally housed nurses who worked at the adjacent hospital. Neighbors worry about their quality of life as the result of changing from living next to an underused office building to a year-round, 24-hour care facility where employees, guests and emergency vehicles come and go. Employees of the care facility reportedly would use the shared alley — passing neighbors’ windows — throughout the day and evening to access the shared, underground parking garage. “People pay a lot of money for these condos,” Hamilton said, speaking on behalf of the homeowners. “They don’t want red lights and sirens outside their bedroom door each week.” Darcy Ashley, who chairs La Jolla’s Development Permit Review Committee, believes the walkable neighborhood — with the recreation center across the street and modern art museum down the road — is an ideal place for the elderly, since many will no longer own a vehicle. And the proximity to the ocean may encourage family and friends to visit more often, she added. “If the coastal proximity encourages that to happen, what a compassionate use,” Ashley said.