Peters Township Zoning Hearing Board to review St. Clair Health request, appeals
On Feb. 15, the Peters Township Zoning Hearing Board will field a pair of appeals and a variance request filed by St. Clair Health in connection with its outpatient center at 3928 Washington Road.
At issue is the use of the center’s driveway for customers of a bank branch proposed on adjacent property.
The township filed a notice of violation Dec. 8 “based on St. Clair’s current position that it will no longer allow mandated cross access” to the property, following through on a course of action described in a Nov. 10 letter from township solicitor John Smith to attorney Pierce Richardson of K&L Gates.
Section 440-503 of the Peters Township Code states in part:
“Adjacent commercial properties shall provide a joint or cross-access driveway to allow circulation between sites wherever feasible along roadways classified as major collectors or arterials.”
In addition to requesting a variance from the cross-access requirement, St. Clair is appealing the notice of violation and the denial of a building permit, according to the legal notice for the Zoning Hearing Board meeting.
“We opened that building in 2013. St. Clair Health’s vision for that property was that we would build an outpatient center that’s conveniently located but which provides a safe refuge – a protected campus, if you will – for patients seeking care,” James Collins, St. Clair Health president and chief executive officer, said. “And as is the nature with all healthcare facilities, that campus would allow us to have the building grow and change over time.”
His organization posted a petition on change.org, requesting “support on an issue that could jeopardize the safety and experience of patients at our Peters Township Outpatient Center.” As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition had drawn more than 3,000 virtual signatures.
“The reason we started the petition was so that patients could have a voice,” Collins said. “Community planning is ultimately about serving the people, and the same, by the way, for St. Clair Health. We’re here to serve the people.”
Among those offering support for the organization’s position is benefactor Dolores Kara, for whom – with her late husband, Michael – the outpatient center is named.
“I’ve always taken pride in the accessible, dependable manner in which people enter and leave the parking lot,” she wrote in a letter to Peters Township. “I am very concerned that increased traffic in what already is an area of extreme vehicle congestion on Route 19 will cause accidents and create a stressful experience for patients.”
Peters resident Lucy Shoupp also offered her opinion.
“Although I understand the arguments on both sides, I’m not a lawyer. I highly respect both parties,” she said. “They key issue to me, in looking at cross access, is not so much what somebody says the law is or what the rules are in Peters Township, but more an issue of patient safety.
“I’ve seen people walking through that parking area, and sometimes it can be a problem if there’s a lot of a traffic and they’re not paying attention,” Shoupp added. “It’s different than if the outpatient center were a grocery store. There are people who go there who are not well. So I think it would be in the best interests of all parties if they viewed their deliberations through the lens of patient safety and came up with a rational conclusion.”
Robert Marino, who often visits the outpatient center for healthcare services, expressed opposition to the proposed use of the property next door.
“If you just look around the Peters Township area, we have more than sufficient banks,” he said. “That outpatient center is located in a fantastic place for patients. And if we want to accommodate patients safely, leave it alone.”
From the township’s standpoint, the disagreement regarding the driveway is nothing new. In his correspondence to Richardson, Smith cited a letter written by township planning director Ed Zuk in January 2014 “addressing the very same issue.”
Smith informed Richardson that “the initial plan for St. Clair Hospital Outpatient Facility failed to identify,” as required by ordinance, an interconnection south to the property at 3944 Washington Road.
“In response to Peters Township identifying the error with the initial site plan, St. Clair rectified the deficiencies in its submission” of an amended plan “to show the necessary cross access,” Smith wrote. “As the cross-access driveway was shown on the site plan, along with a myriad of other components, the final site plan demonstrated compliance and was later approved.”
Collins, though, disagreed with that type of an assessment.
“The building was constructed after a very thorough, exhaustive and careful review by the township,” he said. “Nowhere in any of those approval documents is the requirement for St. Clair to provide a permanent easement for whoever may buy the adjoining properties.”
He said requiring interconnections “may be perfectly appropriate for banks and fast-food establishments and the like. But what I would submit is, that’s not what people want for their healthcare experience.”
“If I suggested that a bank adjacent to the schools should be able to use the same driveway, I suspect most people would say that’s a very bad idea,” he continued. “So if it’s a bad idea for schools, why is it OK for healthcare facilities that attract equal numbers of people who are vulnerable or distracted? I think that’s at the root of our difference of opinion with Peters Township, apart from our different perspectives on the law and the facts.”
For more information, visit www.peterstownship.com/223/Zoning-Hearing-Board.