Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, September 22, 2008

Foes of Providence hospital growth file suit

Opponents want to overturn city approval of a rezone for future expansion at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

By David Chircop
Herald Writer

 EVERETT -- Neighbors opposed to the expansion of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett are taking their fight from city hall to the courthouse.

A newly formed nonprofit group called Neighbors for Neighborhoods filed a lawsuit against the city of Everett in Snohomish County Superior Court last week, seeking to reverse the Everett City Council's recent approval to rezone 9.3 acres near the Colby campus for future hospital growth.

The group has hired Peter Eglick, a Seattle land-use and environmental attorney, who represented five King County cities in a protracted and costly battle against construction of a third runway at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport earlier this decade.

The legal challenge is not aimed at a 13-story hospital tower that was earlier approved and is expected be completed by mid-2011.

It does attempt to preempt a second 175-foot hospital tower, utility building, parking garage and medical buildings that the hospital plans to build in phases in future decades.

The lawsuit alleges the city violated state environmental law and its own policies when approving the hospital's request to have Everett Community College's athletic field complex rezoned to allow for hospital uses. Providence and EvCC are also named in the lawsuit.

The hospital hopes to take control of the property through a land swap with the college.

Eglick spoke at the Aug. 20 Everett City Council meeting, urging the council to table the hospital's request until its need and arguments against it could be examined more thoroughly.

After filing the lawsuit, Eglick said the city's review process had both "procedural and substantive issues" that rise to a "degree of informality that steps outside of the law."

Everett spokeswoman Kate Reardon said the city has hired a contract attorney, who is reviewing the case.

Providence Everett CEO David Brooks said he is concerned that litigation has the potential to affect the hospital's ability to serve the county's health-care needs.

"We believe the process was thorough and comprehensive and we're disappointed that we've moved into this," he said.

EvCC spokeswoman Katherine Schiffner said the college supports the city's review of the hospital's request. The state attorney general's office is representing EvCC in the dispute.

This isn't the first time the hospital and neighbors have clashed. In 2005, the hospital won approval for an expansion that included the removal of nearly two dozen historic Donovan homes.

Neighbors now and at that time were worried about losing views of the Cascade Range while a living next to a bustling hospital.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA