EVERETT — Providence Everett Medical Center has reconfigured a major expansion plan for its Colby Avenue campus.
At a public hearing tonight, the Everett Planning Commission is scheduled to review the hospital’s new plans for a 9-acre parcel that it hopes to acquire in a land swap with Everett Community College.
It’s the most comprehensive vision the hospital has made public since late 2006, when it first announced interest in developing the property.
Neighborhood opposition surfaced earlier this year when the hospital’s first development details for the property were unveiled.
Much of the controversy focused on a proposed 50-foot-tall utility plant topped with exhaust stacks, just 30 feet from people’s yards. Hospital planners said building it farther from homes would limit future development options.
After listening to three hours of testimony in early June, the Planning Commission voted to continue the public hearing to another date. Commission Chairman Clair Olivers asked Providence to come back with more details on the location of proposed structures. The hospital’s original plan only showed the location of the utility plant.
The new plan increases the height of the utility plant, but shrinks the building’s footprint and moves it more than 220 feet away from homes.
The utility plant would supply heat, cooling and emergency electricity for the entire hospital.
Another major change is the placement of seven clinical and medical office buildings next to residential properties on the northern and eastern edges of the property. The buildings would rise up to 75 feet tall.
In addition, the plans call for a new 175-foot-tall medical tower just north of 13th Street.
Within two decades, a pedestrian skybridge would connect that building with a new 12-story medical tower now under construction, according to the revised plan.
In order to develop the site, the hospital needs the city to amend the land use designation for the property.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Meeting tonight
Planning Commission Meeting: 6:30 tonight, Everett Station’s 4th floor Weyerhaeuser Room, 3201 Smith St.
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