2005/12/05 Council Agenda Packet

Planning Commission Meeting February 15, 2005 Page 12 Jan Hoban, 1410 Oakes Avenue, was the newest homeowner in the Donovan District. When she purchased her home, the realtor represented this as a parking lot that had not been approved. She is very concerned that the development of the hospital is much larger than she anticipated. However, she could not begrudge the expansion of such a worthy hospital or a cancer center or parking facility. She stated that 21 historic homes will be removed and that they were not going to be displaced but demolished. She felt that the preferred alternative was the most convenient and ideal for the hospital but there were other options. She would like the neighborhood to remain a quiet and lovely residential area. Nana Hecht, 1330 Lombard, stated that her family moved to this residence in 1947 when she was two and that her mother still resided in the family home. She does feel that PEMC has been short sided in exploring other options both at the Pacific and Colby Campus. In the rezone application, PEMC stated that the plan was developed to minimize the impact of the neighbors while at the same time meeting the health care needs of the community. Destroying 22 homes in a neighborhood that is not only historic but is also desirable to many families is not compatible with the City of Everett's comprehensive plan policies to protect further encroachment of residential neighborhoods. She stated that in other cities, state of the art cancer clinics have been built on offsite locations. Her daughter had cancer and received treatment at a cancer clinic in Eugene Oregon and did not have to go to the hospital. Her daughter mentioned to her that the cancer clinic was two and half miles from the hospital outpatient clinic. Ms. Hecht stated that she would prefer that the hospital stay within their existing footprint, to use the Wetmore property for a parking lot, and to build the cancer clinic off site. She felt that demolition of the Donovan neighborhood homes was unnecessary and was worried that in future years, hospital growth would continue to Broadway. She stated that the reason the two hospitals merged was the drop in number of admitting patients and the healthcare reform. Medical needs change and in a 1993 Seattle Times newspaper article, Mark Judy who was General Hospital's president and chief executive officer, stated that he would never have predicted the things that have been happening in the last three or four months. Her point was that if he could not predict four months ahead of time, how can the hospital predict what is going to happen in the next twenty years. She really felt that more time be required to review the other options and would like to the city and hospital to come up with some creative ideas to satisfy the hospital and the neighbors in the north end of Everett. Judy Bryant, 1327 Oakes, will be facing the construction of the hospital and had some concerns regarding the buffer. She does support the fact that the hospital needs to grow; however, she does not support the expansion plan that proposes the demolition of 21 historic homes. If the rezone request is approved, she really feels that this would be the beginning of providence's expansion to Broadway. Todd Gunderson, 1728 Washington Avenue, Mukilteo, is an internal medicine doctor at the Everett Clinic and is also serving as president of the medical staff at the hospital. He felt that the PEMC medical staff showed extensive due diligence over twenty years in master planning the redevelopment of the hospital. The bed capacity is becoming a crisis for Doctor's who admit patients to the hospital. Good physicians can't be recruited without a good workshop (hospital). Most of the physicians are in the downtown Everett area because physicians like to be close to their hospitalized patients and to move the hospital to another location would be horribly disruptive to ongoing patient care. He felt that the eastward expansion was the only feasible option for the hospital.