Support doesn’t mean blank check

Julie Muhlstein’s Sunday column concerning the expansion of Providence Everett Medical Center reflects the general public’s impression of the rezone conflict in the North Everett neighborhood. And it’s wrong.

To hear people argue that we need to allow unchecked growth because the hospital saves lives in illogical. My children were also born at PEMC. The hospital has also provided life-saving services to my family. This does not mean that I should support a blank check when it comes to what they can and cannot do to our city.

Most of the opponents of the rezone support the hospital, but we do not support unchecked building growth in our neighborhood. What PEMC was asking for was carte blanche for the next 40 years — to do with that property as they want. The North Everett Neighborhood Alliance argued that PEMC has yet to demonstrate a need to build a second 175-foot bed tower. In fact, their growth does not align with the State Department of Health’s bed certification, which declined the full number of beds that PEMC applied for. Ironically, PEMC also contends that there is a dire need for medical office space, yet the top two floors of the new Cancer Center remain unoccupied. Again — where is the need?

Thank you to Councilmember Mark Olson for looking deeper into this issue concerning documented need and attaching an amendment requiring the hospital to have the DOH’s bed certification prior to breaking ground. Sadly, PEMC will move forward with their utility plant, regardless of whether they will be able to build the second bed tower. In the end, everyone in Everett might be faced with an empty lot surrounding the utility plant, should PEMC not get certified for the second bed tower. It is unfortunate that our City Council was willing to take that risk to push through this rezone application.

Angela Krisinger