The Covington City Council will soon be considering zoning for the downtown area, and one property owner is hoping for a shift from the Planning Commission recommendations.

The Planning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend to the council against allowing a 24-hour emergency department and a hospital in the town center.

The owner of the 17-acre site in the town center behind Safeway and Fred Meyer, Doug Mergenthaler, chief operating officer of the Tukwila-based Ashton Capital, has a purchase agreement with Valley Medical Center to sell the west 10 acres of the property for a medical plaza with a 24-hour emergency department as part of the plan. The 10 acres are located closest to state Route 516.

Mergenthaler said he believes the Valley proposal is the best opportunity to financially develop the site and provide a gathering place for the city’s town center area.

Along with the medical mall, the Valley proposal includes a public plaza and green spaces.

According to Mergenthaler, because the site sets back away from clear sight of SR 516, big box stores and many other retail options for the site are not viable in the current economy.

“We’ve talked to several (interested parties), but they are not interested because of the economic climate and zoning,” Mergenthaler said.

He said Valley approached him about eight months ago with the proposal to purchase the property. Valley has negotiated to pay about $5 million for the 10 acres.

Mergenthaler said while he lives on the edge of Covinginton city limits, “I consider myself a citizen of Covington and I want the best for Covington.”

Ashton owns about 500,000 square feet of retail and office space in the city, including the Covington Esplanade shopping center where Home Depot is located, the former QFC, LA Fitness and the Covington Place shopping center where City Hall and PETCO are located.

Mergenthaler said the proposal for his property, “is good for the citizens of the downtown and it brings in high paying jobs. It fits the downtown plan and brings in good jobs.”

Mergenthaler said in today’s economic environment most development has come to a halt.

“For Valley to spend this and put in infrastructure is a godsend,” Mergenthaler said. “Here is a real deal on the table. If we don’t act upon it shortly it will go away.”

The Planning Commission vote came after a June 3 meeting where public testimony was taken on downtown zoning. Most of the speakers directed their comments at whether to allow an emergency department and hospital in the town center, and the tally was split down the middle.

Of the 27 who spoke, 26 talked about a medical facility in the town center with 13 were for it and 13 against.

MultiCare is planning to build an emergency department and 58 bed hospital on the medical facility’s Urgent Care site, which is located in the downtown area, but not the town center site as is the proposed Valley medical plaza.

Hugh Kodama, Covington MultiCare administrator, has publicly stated he believes emergency department should not be allowed in the town center.

Of the 27 who spoke at the June 3 Planning Commission meeting, 15 were associated with either Valley or MultiCare.

Kodama’s wrote in a letter to the commission, “It is fine to have clinic/office space, but to have an emergency department or a hospital in this area is a whole different ball game. The ambulances, the people that are ill, coughing, etc.¬†Do we envision that we want our children playing next to that kind of scene? It does not fit into the Town Center.”

Mike Glenn, senior vice president of business development for Valley, presented the public hospital’s side stating, “We believe that locating such a facility in the Town Center zone is in keeping with the vision of Covington citizens who developed the Town Center plan during a lengthy, well-thought out process.”

The medical plaza proposal presented to the City Council by Glenn May 25 stated there would be three to four emergency medical transports each day with no sirens.

At the Monday Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners meeting Glenn said, “We really do believe it is a hand and glove fit.”

The City Council will be taking comments at a public hearing July 13 at the Council Chambers in City Hall following a joint Planning Commission and Council meeting scheduled for 6 p.m.

(The Planning Commission vote was reported as 5-2 in the June 25 edition, but city officials called to report the count reported to the newspaper was incorrect and the vote had been 4-3. The four who voted to not allow the emergency department and hospital were Sean Smith, Daniel Key, Jack Brooks and Alex White. The three dissenting votes were cast by Sonia Foss, Richard Pfeiffer and Bill Judd.)