2005/12/05 Council Agenda Packet

General Hospital SPU & Variance 3-88 Page -18- In the plan, the site has been designated as "hospital use". Specifically addressing General Hospital, the City adopted a plan _Michencouraged inter—sive existing sit velnpmen3t—befox�__a� lawinQ _ the._._hospi_tal_._ to fucthnr expand into the residential neighborhood If properly executed, the pro rest en is as`worthy of preservation -.— In light of this brief dissertation of the general problem of hospital expansion, a review of EMC 19.58.010 can be made. Clearly, the hospital must obtain a Special Property Use Permit. EMC 19.58.010(C)(2) requires the community unity service facilities be developed with a Special Property Use Permit. Included in the list of such facilities is a hospital and other similar uses providing health services for citizens. The proposed parking garage and medical office building are adjuncts to the hospital that are necessary to provide the health services for the citizens of Everett. Thus, the hospital is a use recognized under this section of the Everett Municipal Code. Because it is a use permitted by a Special Property Use Permit, the guidelines of EMC 19.58.010(B) 1-3 must be reviewed (these guidelines are set forth in the Findings of this document). The first guideline is "compatibility". As the hospital presented at the hearing, it is inevitable that the two uses clash. They do not complement or supplement each other and in fact often conflict with each other. In a more utopian environment, the original planners of this community would have segregated the two uses to create compatibility, tranquility and peace in the respective neighborhoods. However, the situation must be reviewed as -"what is done .jg dont" and what is done is that the hospital was developed �� present space surrounded by - residential uses. there seems to be no dispute that the Everett General Hospital is a fine medical institution and no one is advocating the closing of the facility or abandonment of the site in—what the counsel for the hospital refers to as "thy wosce�cio" Opponents have voiced, however, philosophies of no growth for the hospital or expansion to other parts of town. Neither of these options specifi esolution of the coma i i o is present location. In reviewing compatibility it is necessary to consider the additions proposed, and what impact they will have on the neighborhood. The hospital's parking garage will help partially alleviate the parking problem in the area. With a four and one-half story parking structure and a lot on Wetmore Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets, parking demands for spaces within the neighborhood should be reduced. the medical office building will be a six and one-half story structure that will differ from the residential uses in the neighborhood. However, it will be an adjunct to the hospital. Its size, height and mass will be tempered by terracing, design, landscaping and use of materials that will reduce the impression of the mass of the structure. Although it will be for medical offices, it will not be commercial in a sense that the use will be disruptive to the residential zoned neighborhood. With the mass and size of the hospital nearby, the structure will not be out of scale to other buildings in the area.