The race is on between Valley Medical Center and MultiCare to build 24-hour emergency service centers in Covington, and the first hurdle will be getting the building permits.
MultiCare is planning to build an emergency medical department connected to its Urgent Care facility in Covington and later a 58-bed hospital.
Valley is planning a similar emergency facility in the Town Center area of Covington.
Mike Glenn, senior vice president of business development for Valley, stated by phone Feb. 2 the public hospital would like to break ground in August or “early fall.”
However, city of Covington officials have stated the time line for Valley to begin construction on the emergency center is not workable.
According to City Manager Derek Matheson, the staff is working as quickly as possible to get the zoning regulation and design standards completed.
Glenn said Valley signed a contract in January for 10 acres in the Town Center with Ashton Development. The site is south of Safeway and east of Fred Meyer.
The price of the property was outlined in an e-mail from Glenn, “Terms for our property under contract in Covington: 10 acres, $5,009,400, $11.50 sf (per square foot).”
Matheson pointed out the city has gone through a series of steps to get the downtown plan complete. The first step was completing the downtown zoning study, which was finished in the fall of 2009, the second step was amending the comprehensive plan, which was done in December and adopted by the City Council.
The next step is completing the zoning regulations and design guidelines, which is the point where the city staff is currently.
Matheson said the City Council directed $50,000 for the downtown zoning work, taking it out of a budget that cut “over $1 million and absorbed $700,000 in debt service that the real estate excise tax could not pay. With that $50,000 we are expediting the zoning regulations as much as possible. At this point throwing more money at this will not speed up the process.”
Matheson said the earliest the zoning regulations and design work will be completed is by the summer, “June, July or August. The staff writes the (zoning) code, but we don’t control how much time the Planning Commission and City Council take.”
Once the zoning code and design guidelines are completed the regulations must be approved and adopted by the City Council.
Matheson said, “It is not humanly possible to break ground in August.”
The city manager said the city staff is doing all it can to move the process ahead. Matheson stated the city staff will also be certain the process is “fair and impartial for any permit application from Valley or Multicare. We will not play favorites in terms of the permit process.”
