EVERETT — Neighbors still oppose Providence Everett Medical Center’s expansion plans, which cleared a significant hurdle late Monday night.
They acknowledge the hospital made concessions when it revised plans that include building a utility plant with exhaust stacks, medical buildings and a parking garage near homes in the northwest neighborhood.
Still, the neighbors plan to take their objections to the Everett City Council, which is expected to take up the issue on Aug. 20
“The only way we’re going to get anything done is working through the process, because the hospital ain’t going to talk with us, that’s for sure,” said Gary Seagrave, whose home is just a stone’s throw from the proposed expansion.
Providence Everett CEO David Brooks said the hospital crafted a proposal that strikes a balance between the needs of the community and the concerns of the neighbors.
“I’m actually quite proud of the hospital,” Brooks said. “We listened and we tried to accommodate what we heard from the neighbors and commissioners.”
At a hearing packed with more than 150 people late Monday night, the Everett Planning Commission approved the expansion plans with a 4-0 vote. Their decision is only a recommendation. The City Council makes the final decision.
The hospital is seeking to rezone 9.4 acres near its Colby campus in north Everett. It’s part a land-swap deal with Everett Community College.
A rezone will allow the hospital to build taller buildings on the property, including a 175-foot-tall medical tower and an 85-foot-tall utility plant. The hospital brought one version of the expansion plans to the planning commission in June but released revised plans last week. Changes include moving the utility plant farther from homes.
Providence officials say the hospital needs room to grow to keep pace with the needs of the region’s growing and aging population.
Dozens of neighbors oppose the hospital’s plan because the new buildings will block views and cast shadows over their homes. The expansion will likely also increase traffic and noise in the residential neighborhood, opponents say.
Opponents said last-minute changes to the hospital’s plans gave them just a week to respond. They also criticized the timing, arguing it was wrong to conduct a hearing on the Monday after a holiday weekend when people were away on vacation.
Supporters, including hospital staff and family members of patients, said the expansion is needed to care for the region’s growing and aging population.
Striking a balance between the needs of the neighborhood and the hospital was difficult, commissioners said.
“This is really a painful process, it’s a long process,” said planning commissioner Michelle Trautman, after poring over detailed planning documents and letters and listening to seven hours of testimony spread over two meetings.
In their decision, planning commissioners recommended the hospital be required to reduce the height of buildings on the perimeter of the property closest to houses. Commissioners also said the hospital should terrace buildings above four stories on the east side of the property in order to reduce their bulk and impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
After the vote at about 10 p.m., a woman sitting in the back of the vast Weyerhaeuser room on the fourth floor of Everett station heckled commissioners, saying their decision was flawed.
On Tuesday, Seagrave said neighbors will ask the City Council to make the hospital increase landscaping by the homes it borders and lower building heights in order to spare neighbors from adverse effects of its expansion.
“We need to ask them to really look at those setbacks and give us something reasonable,” he said.
Commissioners Trautman, Jeff Moore, Clair Olivers and Don Chase voted in favor of the expansion plans.
Commissioners Jamie Hunter and Si Newland were absent Monday.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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