03-08-2010 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, March 8, 2010 7:00 o'clock p.m. ( #10 -3442 THE EMILYPROGRAM, 2180 NORTHSHORE DRIVE, Continued) Number four, the granting of variances is not necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of the substantial property rights of this or any other applicant. This applicant has available uses for this property. Number .five, both the St. Paul and St. Anthony program buildings are located in business and mixed use districts. Number six, the granting of the variances has the potential, both in the short and long -term, to negatively affect the surrounding residences. Number seven, regarding conditional use standards that are not met, the proposed use will be detrimental to properties in the vicinity due to the inadequate buffers around hospital and similar medical uses, and the proposed use will not comply with the City's Zoning Code but will require variances to be permitted. Finally, there are other important issues that have simply not been adequately resolved, such as parking, where there is clearly a deficit, and the lack of transparency surrounding the specifics of the conditions of use. • Danielson stated, in summary, a permanent change to the zoning standards to allow a hospital and similar medical uses on the Hill School property will permit substantially intensified uses on a site that is just 29 percent of the required size for a facility of this nature. Clearly, this permanent change will pose a significant risk to the surrounding community, my neighbors, their families, and my family. For all of those reasons, I ask • that you reject the application. Michael LaQuey, P.O. Box 94, stated the health care industry is moving towards measuring outcomes to judge a program. We do not have any publically available scientifically based measurements of this program. The following are some examples: Hospital aides did not administer beta blockers 50 percent of the time for emergency room heart attack patients; 30 percent of the hospital admissions for heart attacks died. They did not follow evidence based best practices, so therefore they had poor outcomes. LaQuey stated before the City Council can make an educated, rational, scientifically based decision on how this will benefit our community, there should be some industry standard rated outcomes, such as remission rates, death rates, cure rates, morbidity, efficacy of the treatment, if it is based on therapy alone, etc. Steven Byrnes, 1025 Heritage Lane, indicated he does support the Emily Program and that he has been personally affected by eating disorders that his sister suffered from as well. His family is thankful for the care she received from Dr. Miller. Byrnes distributed a set of letters from other neighbors and residents who do support the Emily Program moving into the neighborhood. Byrnes stated he has concerns regarding comments made at the past hearings and scenarios that are simply not plausible and are based on fear and conjecture. Byrnes stated in his view the issues relating to police and emergency calls, property values, traffic, noise, location, and even the conditional use permit have been adequately addressed because the opposition has not provided credible empirical facts. The chief of police of Chaska has submitted a letter indicating that the Emily Program has had no impact on Chaska based on the number of emergency calls to the facility. The police chief of Orono indicated that based on the number of emergency calls he saw in Chaska, he did not feel that would impact Orono. Credible • empirical evidence was requested that would refute that. Page 6 of 23-