Citizen’s Advisory Committee Hard At Work
Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill Campus, located in Seattle’s historic Central District, Citizen’s Advisory Committee: The name is a mouthful, but the truth is that your Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) has been operating for two years now, trying to help guide development at what most of us still know as “Providence Hospital.”
As you can read most any day in the paper, the business of medicine is changing and it is changing at Providence as much as anywhere. You are probably aware that Swedish Hospital bought Providence some years ago: they recently renamed it “Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill Campus, located in Seattle’s historic Central District” (or SMC/Cherry Hill for short). What you may not know is that SMC has sold about half of its campus buildings to a developer, Sabey Corporation. Where all of this gets tricky from the point of the CAC, is that SMC and Sabey are trying to continue to develop the campus under the Major Institutional Master Plan (MIMP) developed by the Sisters of Providence 13 years ago, even though SMC/Sabey are on record stating that they do not intend to build much, if any, of what is called for in that plan. Interesting times, indeed!
When the CAC was formed, members were given a brief introduction to each other and to what was expected of us, and then were immediately thrown into an important issue affecting the neighborhood.
The Parking Garage
The first thing we were asked to do was comment on the proposed new parking garage (located on Jefferson between 15th and 16th Avenues). We were asked to make a choice: would we prefer a building of the height and width allowed under the MIMP or a building wider than the one allowed (it would come to within a foot of the south property line and expand into the required setback by almost 20’) but would be two stories lower as a result. We chose to recommend the wider and lower building design as being the option we felt was less intrusive on the neighborhood. There has been a fair amount of criticism about our decision, but many CAC members still feel this was the right choice under the circumstances.
What we learned through this process, however, was that your CAC needs to get involved in the development process long before the buildings are in the design phase so as to choose from the widest array of options. We were making a little progress!
The Kidney Center
The next new building under our consideration was the Northwest Kidney Center located at 15th and Cherry. Unfortunately, this building too was brought to us in a late stage of development, and we were told that there were few options available to us to reduce its impact on the neighborhood.
We were asked to recommend whether moving the building allowed under the MIMP from another site on campus to this site constituted a ‘minor amendment’ or a ‘major amendment’ to the MIMP. Voting for a minor amendment would constitute approval of the development, while voting for a major amendment would be the same as recommending a new planning process be undertaken.
After a great deal of discussion, your CAC decided that three changes were needed for the building to be considered a minor amendment. These changes were: (1) That a pedestrian plaza be included within the green space along the north façade of the building; (2) That the south façade of the building be set back a minimum of five feet along at least the west 50% of that facade sufficient to allow for both landscaping and windows; and (3) That the fourth floor of the building be set back 15 feet along the north façade for one structural bay to reduce the towering appearance of the facade.
With the above three conditions attached, we recommended that the building be considered a minor amendment.
Unfortunately, this was a mistake. SMC/Sabey wrote to the City explaining that they would be happy to implement Change #1; they could only profitably accommodate about half of Change #2; and they were not prepared to make any part of Change #3. To our great disappointment, the City then decided that SMC/Sabey had done enough and approved the transfer of building area as a minor amendment. In hindsight, may of us believe that we should simply have voted to recommend the transfer as a major amendment.
The Extension and the Compromise
In the autumn of 2007 and with two years remaining on the existing MIMP, SMC/Sabey wrote to the City requesting that the current MIMP be extended for five years. The request came before the CAC for comment, and we all asked the same question: “Why do you need an extension? Why can’t the two years remaining on the current MIMP be used to craft a new MIMP, especially given that you say you have no intention of building what is proscribed under the current MIMP?”
Well, the answer to that question turned out to be long and complicated (much longer that I have space to go into here) and, after much discussion, we reached a compromise: the CAC would support a two-year extension of the MIMP on the condition that SMC/Sabey would spend the two years remaining on the current MIMP in a real, inclusive visioning process with the community and would then spend the two- year extension on the inclusive MIMP creation process as required by City law.
The goal of your CAC was to create a process to better help the community (and the CAC) understand the changes taking place in medicine and what those changes mean for the campus itself. The expected result is that we will all be more closely connected to the development process at the Cherry Hill Campus and so be able to make choices from the widest array of possible options. Progress indeed!
The Visioning Process
So here is your chance, people! The CAC will be spending the next two years discussing changes taking place in medicine and how those changes are expected to impact the Cherry Hill Campus and, by extension, our Squire Park neighborhood. If you are interested and/or concerned about how these changes will impact all of us, you need to come to these meetings to listen and comment when appropriate. Thanks for reading.
—Timothy Hicks, Chair
Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill Campus, CAC