Step onto the deck or into the back yard of the Virginia Villa apartments, and enter an oasis of wooded tranquility, a sharp contrast to the bustle of High School Road out the front door.

For some of the federally subsidized complex’s 41 elderly and disabled residents, that sanctuary is a big part of their lives.

“We have people who don’t go out at all,” said manager Linda O’Neil. “Their lives are sitting on the deck, watching the critters.

“Don’t take that away.”

What residents say is a threat to their peace and quiet comes from a Bellevue developer’s plans to build a four-story hotel/apartment complex between the Villa and American Bank on one side, and the Texaco station on the other.

“It’s too big,” O’Neil said. “There would be 114 units on one acre, and it wouldn’t do anything for the community. Initially, it was proposed to be like Winslow Green, with stores and restaurants, but now there isn’t anything.

“It doesn’t offer the city anything but more headaches.”

The proposal, from Base Capital of Bellevue, is a re-tooled version of a mixed-use project originally proposed two years ago for the three-acre site east of the gas station.

The present plan calls for 60 one- and two-bedroom residences, and a 54-unit “extended stay” hotel. The 148 parking spaces would be under the building.

The project would take advantage of the unique 45-foot height allowance for projects along High School Road that put their parking underground. The building height restriction in all other island zones is 35 feet.

The 60 residences would occupy a total of some 57,000 square feet, with the hotel rooms occupying another 37,000 square feet.

Franco Mola, a principal of Base Capital, did not return calls seeking information on the project’s configuration.

Plans show that construction would be confined to the portion of the property fronting High School Road, leaving the rear area, much of which is wetlands, as open space.

That’s both good and bad, the city planning staff says.

“While over half the site will not be disturbed by virtue of its wetland status, this open space will be hidden from view and the project may appear to dominate its High School Road frontage,” planner Bob Katai wrote in a memorandum summarizing planning commission concerns.

Katai said Thursday that a further revision of the plan may be on the way.

“We said that you have to be sensitive to the site,” he said. “The wetlands are a nice amenity, but you won’t be able to see them once the building is built.”

Access remains a potential problem. The plan calls for sharing the Texaco driveway on the east and the American Marine Bank driveway on the west, but representatives of both of those businesses have expressed concern over traffic impacts.

Mola met with the Villa’s residents recently, O’Neil said, but didn’t ease all of their concerns.

“At one point, he said their building would be seven feet from our property, and another time he said 200 feet. That’s quite a difference,” she said. “And when he was asked how the building height would compare to the height of the bank, he couldn’t say.

“We need those answers to help people visualize what it’s going to look like.”

O’Neil was also worried about the effect of removing the trees at the front half of the lot, which she says are good buffers to traffic noise from the highway. And she fears the impact of construction, particularly on the forest’s animal population.

“I’m not worried about the deer, because they will leave when the noise starts,” she said. “But some other animals will get scared and run up trees. I called Bloedel Reserve, and they said they would come and rescue any animals caught up a tree.”

Plans call for a pedestrian trail from High School Road through the wetlands – potentially extending north to the developments on the old Sakai property, and about which Virginia Villa residents are also skittish.

“This is a secure building for a reason,” she said. “These people are very vulnerable. Walkways in the woods aren’t such a great idea. Kids will be kids will be kids, and I know about parties in the woods where there is drinking.”

O’Neil took her concerns to the city council Wednesday evening; she and other Virginia Villa residents will make their feelings known at the planning commission’s May 23 meeting, when the item is on the agenda again.

“Everybody in the building either grew up on Bainbridge or came here to join their families,” she said. “Nobody came for development.”

O’Neil, who comes by her Boston accent naturally, may be new to the Northwest, but she has seen the impact of over-development elsewhere.

“They paid a lot for that land, and I’m realistic enough to know they will build something on it,” she said. “But that’s too much. This island is a beautiful place, but it won’t take much to turn it into something ordinary.”