Hospital hearing moved to August
DOUGLASS (MONT.) » A public hearing on a proposed hospital complex off Route 100 and Grosser Road has been postponed.
Township Manager Peter Hiryak said the township had planned to hold the hearing outdoors in the township building parking lot Monday evening, July 20, to allow for better social distancing due to the large turnout expected.
However, “due to the excess heat, we thought it best not to subject people to that,” Hiryak said Monday afternoon.
Instead, the meeting will be held in mid-August and the township hopes to use the Gilbertsville Firehouse on East Philadelphia Avenue as the location, he said.
The hearing was specifically for a change to the township’s zoning ordinance that would have allowed the building height, currently restricted to 50 feet, to rise to 65 feet, essentially allowing four floors instead of three, said Hiryak.
But the proposal, currently little more than a sketch plan, has drawn a lot of public interest, particularly from the residents of the nearby housing development of Summer Hill, built about 20 years ago and comprised of about 150 homes.
Currently, the proposal calls for a project of 250,000 square feet in the open field behind the Wawa at Grosser Road and Route 100 with the hospital, out buildings and perhaps even a helicopter pad, Hiryak said.
“Residents have some concerns, and rightly so,” he said.
“We need to get some questions answered about the helipad, do a traffic study and see if any improvements would be needed to roadways and what kind of buffering would be needed to lower the impact on the homeowners, which is very important,” Hiryak said.
The new hearing date and location will be duly advertised, said Hiryak.
“We expect there to be presentations from the developer, from the public and even from the Summer Hill (homeowners association),” Hiryak said.