Emotions run high on Everett hospital expansion

Published 12:20 am Thursday, August 21, 2008

EVERETT — Clashing visions for the future of Everett’s Northwest neighborhood drew dozens of people to an emotionally charged City Council meeting Wednesday night.

The crowd included mostly foes, but also supporters of Providence Everett Medical Center’s proposed rezoning and expansion of its Colby campus.

As of 10 p.m., the council had not made a decision.

The Planning Commission last month voted to recommend that the council approve the 9.3-acre growth plan, which would nearly double the hospital’s footprint in the neighborhood and pave the way for a 13-story building that would be the tallest in the city.

Hospital officials say the expansion is needed to keep pace with the medical needs of a growing and aging population. Snohomish County’s population, now about 700,000, is expected to grow to about 1 million people by 2035.

“Providence is not just a company, we’re not just a business, we’re not just a hospital,” said Providence Chief Executive David Brooks. “Providence is a vital resource for this community and the entire region.”

Brooks said the plan, which Providence scaled back in response to neighborhood protests, is a fair compromise that strikes a balance between the needs of future patients and those of the hospital’s neighbors.

Opponents say the expansion is out of scale for a residential neighborhood and that it breaks previous assurances by the hospital to limit its growth. They also question the urgency for a sweeping rezone that deals with buildings that the hospital acknowledges won’t be needed for decades.

“I know I’m supposed to keep this down to three bullets for people to remember, but there’s a lot of information here,” said Gary Seagrave who lives on Rockefeller Avenue, just a stone’s through from where the hospital hopes to build 75-foot-tall clinical buildings.

Along several blocks near the hospital, dozens of yellow lawn signs dot the landscape, saying “No New Re-Zone. A Deal is a Deal!”

The signs are in response to previous statements from hospital planners saying that once Providence grew to 500 beds, it would look at other areas of growth, including land near Highway 9.

Councilman Paul Roberts said he is struggling with the notion that people were surprised by the hospital’s proposed expansion onto the community college’s athletic field. The city encouraged the hospital to work with the college to confine future growth to the site, rather than tearing down more homes.

Janice Halliday, a Providence Everett Medical Center Board member, later spoke to that point.

“It’s a plan that follows a previous direction of the city council,” she said.

The hospital is currently licensed by the state to supply up to 468 beds, which it can accommodate on its existing campus.

City Councilman Mark Olson said he had reservations with the scope of the rezone request.

“I appreciate the need for long-term vision, but in terms of specific approval for building heights, for buildings that may not be necessary for 40 or 50 years, it might be premature.”

The expansion plan is part of a land exchange agreement with Everett Community College, which hopes to acquire a shopping center that the hospital owns across North Broadway from the college campus.

Rezoning the college’s athletic field and gym north of 13th Street would allow the hospital to build the medical tower — which is 13 stories but 175 feet tall — a utility plant and other buildings it says are necessary to meet growing medical demands.

The hospital is already building a 175-foot “U” shaped building with 368 patient rooms, just south of the new proposed tower. A skybridge crossing 13th Street would connect the two towers, according to the hospital’s plans.

The hospital’s growth spurt during the past two years has already incensed neighbors who have lost views of the Cascade Range, put up with construction and watched nearly two dozen historic homes removed to make way for a parking garage and hospital tower.

At the meeting, hospital officials, doctors, board members and consultants urged the council to allow Providence to proceed despite neighborhood protests.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.