2005/12/05 Council Agenda Packet

Planning Commission Meeting February 15, 2005 Page 14 expansion plans to move into block 248 was the most convenient plan for PEMC. Established neighborhood communities are important for Everett. He stated that there weren't very many established neighborhoods in the City that are truly communities where people know their neighbors, walk the kids to school, and walk to work which is a unique characteristic of this area. As architects and planners, we are stewards of the community and the community that this project represents is the community of Providence Hospital and the Donovan area. He implored the commission to look at the process and realize that earlier statements made by commissioners are vague and allow for interpretation. He asked that the Planning Commission be specific in their language so that if the proposed expansion is approved, that the remaining Donovan homes don't have to worry about further encroachment. He also stated that if it was truly the bed capacity that was in dire need to expand why was the cancer center the first building to be built. He was concerned with the nature of master plans and that they usually do not get constructed as originally presented. The first phase of the redevelopment does call for the destruction of the 21 Donovan homes and yet, how can PEMC predict what will happen to the plan in 5, 10, 15 years. He stated that Group Health has a cancer facility 30 miles away. The North Broadway property is only a couple blocks away and that there are many examples around to see that it does work with the progressive nature of the 21 s` Century. Peggy Canell, 10828 201h Street SE, Everett, has been a nurse in the Everett hospital system for almost 24 years. She has seen a lot of changes in those years and believes that PEMC is moving in the right direction. In the last six months, she has had the opportunity to see the patient side of care with her daughter and father. She prayed that they would not be on diversion and that the ER would not be too busy. In both cases within 4 hours they were admitted to the hospital and she felt very lucky. The majority of hospital rooms are semi -private with a few private rooms on each unit. She felt fortunate to work on a unit that has mostly private rooms. Private rooms are not only important for patient satisfaction but also allow the staff to provide confidentiality during routine care. Confidentiality can sometimes be challenging in a semi private room especially if you want to get information from somebody that is hard of hearing. She stated that she supported the hospitals expansion and added that the growing and aging population requires that the hospital be updated with state of art equipment and qualified staff in multiple service areas. Sanford Kinzer, 2817 Wetmore Avenue stated that he was a Board member and current chair of the Everett Community College Board of Trustees. Everett Community College owns the 9 acre parcel directly North of the existing Colby Providence Campus. This land by any definition an alternative to the hospitals needed expansion. As we have heard this evening at great length, Providence Hospital is of unique importance to this community and no one would deny that. We need good health care and to my way of thinking, Providence provides it. It is inevitable that they have to expand. They are no different from any other hospital — these kinds of discussions are going on in every City in America and none of them are easy. The ultimate issue as you all know in this context of zoning and land use, is how to use rare and precious intercity land in a way that benefits the maximum amount of City residents. The College is faced with the same decisions as the Hospital has and we have been before this Commission as recently as two weeks ago with our own land expansion issue. We face the same tough problems that they do and our movement has been towards Broadway and we think that in fact that is the only alternative given the location of our campus just like the hospital's campus in an urban area. Now we have displaced residents just like the hospital threatens to do in this case and we appreciate the difficulty of that decision. They do need to grow and we know that and the medical people in this audience have done a brilliant job of explaining exactly why they do need to grow. The 9 acres across the street to the North is a very viable option for the hospital and