EVERETT – With little debate, the Everett Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of Providence Everett Medical Center’s $400 million expansion – with some reservations.
“This is not an easy decision, and it’s one we’re going to have to live with for a lot of years,” commissioner C.J. Ebert said.
He said he wished the hospital had been more forthcoming with its development plans sooner, but said he believes the hospital has shown “due diligence” in creating its long-term master plan.
The project includes a new cancer center, two new towers for hospital rooms and three new parking garages.
The commission recommended 6-0 that the hospital be allowed to embark on the first phase of its 15- to 20-year expansion plan for its Colby campus, which involves building a cancer center and parking garage to the north of the hospital.
It would also mean removing 21 houses from “block 248” for temporary parking. The block makes up one-quarter of the Donovan District, a group of houses added to the Everett Historic Register in 1998.
Commissioner Michelle Trautman said she has a “soft spot in her heart for historic preservation,” and wondered about efforts to relocate the homes.
Patty DeGroodt, Providence’s chief strategic officer, said the hospital is in talks with a developer about moving 15 of the 21 homes, but wouldn’t say to where.
As part of their decision, planning commissioners asked the hospital to use its “best effort” in removing and reusing as many of the homes as possible.
It also asked for a permanent 50- to 100-foot-wide greenbelt between the hospital’s east side and the neighborhood.
When the expansion is done, Providence could deed the greenbelt to the city as park space, DeGroodt said.
The commission also advised that the hospital “shall not” ever move east of Oakes Avenue, and asked that Providence work to improve the streetscape on 13th Street, which would become the main entrance to the hospital.
“I feel it went well,” said Gail Larson, Providence’s chief executive officer, following the meeting.
She said the hospital is committed to working with the city and neighbors on steps to lessen the impact of its growth.
“We have always been willing to collaborate. We’re very willing to be a part of it,” she said, adding that the hospital is committed to finding a way to move as many of the homes as possible.
Neighbors, many of whom support the hospital’s need to grow but disagree with its decision to expand eastward, are looking to the City Council.
“I wasn’t surprised, but that’s why this is a recommendation,” said neighbor Hilary Hager. “The City Council is elected by the people, and that gives me hope.”
“It’s not over,” added neighbor Jeanne Wohl.
One question the commission asked hospital officials is after 20 years, then what?
“Once we reach 500 beds, we will be as big as a hospital needs to be,” DeGroodt said, adding that the hospital would then look to add locations in other growth centers.
The expansion would increase Providence’s available beds to 500 from 363, and all would be single rooms.
The expansion would also double the hospital’s work force, adding 2,200 jobs, and allow it to keep up with population growth in Snohomish County.
The controversy revolves not around the hospital’s need to grow, but the part of the plan that involves building one block into the neighborhood to its east. The hospital owns all but one of the homes, and has been buying them since 1981.
However, in 1998, those homes and about 60 others in the neighborhood were added to the Everett Historic Register.
At the Feb. 15 commission meeting, neighbors thought they had found hope for compromise. Everett Community College Board of Trustees Chairman Sanford Kinzer suggested that Providence revive a four-year-old land deal with the college.
The deal would involve the hospital buying a college-owned, 9-acre athletic field across the street from the Colby campus. In return, the college would buy the Rite Aid shopping center on Broadway for possible use as a recreational complex.
Expanding on the field could allow the hospital more room and spare the historic homes, Kinzer said, but hospital officials said the field did not factor into their current growth plan.
At the meeting, Ebert said the college and the hospital have got to get together to work on what the master plan is going to be for the athletic field and Rite Aid shopping center.
Ebert said he hoped the meeting would set forth a plan “to encourage, if not force, the hospital and college to work together.”
The commission also approved Everett Community College’s expansion, which would add 14 acres to its 23-acre campus.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.
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