Some residents not welcoming Banner hospital in Chandler

Banner Health plans to open its first hospital in Chandler, but some residents are upset about a medical campus with a helipad in their largely residential neighborhood.

Banner Health already operates a primary care center on the edge of the 18acre site just south of Loop 202, near Alma School and Willis roads. The nonprofit health-care system wants to expand into a 245,000 square-foot hospital.

“Normally people wouldn’t oppose a hospital. It’s not a warehouse, not a carpentry building. People don’t naturally go against a hospital until they figure out how big it is and what it’s going to do to the community,” said Khawar Azad, who moved to the Carrizal neighborhood seven years ago.

He and others worry the hospital would bring traffic and noise and cause home values to plummet in the area they chose because it’s quiet and family-friendly.

However, Kip Edwards, vice president of Banner Health Facilities Services, says the hospital would help meet the needs of Southeast Valley residents. Banner estimates more than 80,000 residents with insurance for its network live in the area.

“This is an ideal site for a hospital, located near the communities it will serve with immediate freeway access and visibility,” Edwards said.

Some residents agree. Nancy Egan said it would improve access to health care and bring jobs to the city.

The Chandler City Council is expected to vote Thursday on the development plan and building architecture after delaying a vote in September to allow for more conversation.

If approved, construction of the first phase of the $155 million project would begin this month and be completed in November 2020, Edwards said. Phase one would include:

❚ A four-story patient tower and a two-story diagnostic and treatment center.

❚ 96 beds.

❚ General surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, cardiology, gastroenterology and emergency services.

❚ A helipad on top of the four-story tower.

The four-story patient tower would be 60 feet high and an elevator that serves the rooftop helipad would extend another 20 feet from the top of the tower. The tallest part of the building would be on the site’s north end, closest to the freeway.

Future phases could expand the medical campus by another 82,800 square feet and an additional 156 more beds, Edwards said.

The hospital would have three surface parking lots for visitors and staff. Patient access to the hospital and the emergency room would be off Alma School Road, while emergency vehicles would access the hospital from Willis Road.

The city would require Banner to improve roads to alleviate traffic, according to the development agreement. Among the projects, Banner would:

❚ Modify the center median separating the north and southbound lanes on Alma School Road from the freeway south to Maplewood Street.

❚ Re-stripe the southbound lanes to expand Alma School from a two-lane to a three-lane road.

❚ Add a left-turn light at the Alma School and Willis roads intersection.

The amount of traffic on Alma School Road currently is below what the city projected 12 years ago, city documents show.

Edwards said that as a medium-sized community hospital, Banner estimates an average of 10 ambulances would arrive at the hospital daily.

Of those 10, he expects 95 percent would come without lights and sirens because of the nature of the patients being transported.

Higher level emergencies that require lights and sirens, such as gunshot injuries or car accidents with lifethreatening injuries, are typically transported to a hospital with a Level 1 trauma center, Edwards said.

The Chandler location is not planned to operate as a Level 1 trauma center.