Hospital threatens to sue over street plan

By RICHARD HANNERS

Whitefish Pilot

North Valley Hospital is ready to take the city to court if it loses $500,000 in the sale of its property because of a long-range transportation plan.

"The city could use eminent domain, but it has to pay something for taking the land," hospital CEO Craig Aasved said.

The Aspen Group, of Phoenix, has agreed to pay $6.9 million for the 13-acre site unless the city holds fast to its plans to extend 13th Street east through the hospital property and over the Whitefish River to Voerman Road.

The Aspen Group has approved extending Columbia Avenue south toward Greenwood Drive and building a new bike path along the west bank of the Whitefish River, but without that river-front land next to the Duck Inn, the developer is willing to pay only $6.4 million for the hospital property.

"Five-hundred-thousand dollars will pay for 2 1/2 months of uncompensated care at the hospital — charity," Aasved said.

Aasved also took exception to mayor Andy Feury's public statement that "the only thing affected by the 13th Street right-of-way is the money in their pockets."

"We're a nonprofit hospital," Aasved said.

The hospital wants the city to give up on the 13th Street alternative described in the city's 2001 Southeast Whitefish Transportation Plan and focus more on the Greenwood Drive alternative, between the Mountain Mall and the former Greenwood Trailer Court.

The 13th Street bridge could cost more than $14 million and was simply "pie in the sky" planning, hospital officials said. A bridge connecting Greenwood Drive and the U.S. Highway 93 corridor to Monegan Road and land east of the river, on the other hand, would be shorter and less costly, they said. Running the road along city-owned land next to the sewage treatment plant would also reduce easement costs, they said.

The hospital is not alone in opposing the 13th Street plan. George Shyrock says the 13th Street bridge would cross four acres of parkland he dedicated to the city when he put together the Rivertrail subdivision in 1993.

Shyrock said he understood that the land would remain in its natural state to provide a safe haven for wildlife and to enhance property values for adjacent landowners.

"I thought I had a deal," Shyrock said. "If the city wins this battle, they could lose the war. People might not be willing to provide easements for future bike paths."

City manager Gary Marks, however, has advised city councilors to stick with their long-term transportation plans and not make exceptions.

The hospital's request "fails to consider that the preservation of future transportation corridors is crucial to the ongoing healthy development of the overall community," Marks said in a memo to councilors. "If developers were allowed to develop property without requirements for such corridors, the community would end up with an extremely inefficient transportation system that lacked connectivity and the ability to sensibly move traffic through the community."

Having to pay developers for easements that help the community as a whole could impact taxes, Marks said.

"Such increases would burden all Whitefish taxpayers and would likely hit hardest on young families and fixed-income seniors who are already struggling to maintain homes in Whitefish," he said.

Marks questioned the wisdom of abandoning one transportation alternative in favor of another.

"Whether the property is owned by the hospital or someone else, each of these options impacts property," he said. "To preclude the option that impacts hospital property to the disadvantage of the owners of property that would be impacted in the other options would be an arbitrary decision."

All the alternatives have drawbacks, he said. The 13th Street option involves building an expensive bridge, acquiring a 100-foot long easement from George Shyrock and impacting the viewshed for residents in the Shady River and Rivertrail subdivisions.

Nevertheless, the 13th Street alternative "offers the safest, most direct route with the least impact on established neighborhoods," Marks said.

As for the "deal" the city council allegedly made with Shyrock in 1993, Marks said he was unable to find any reference to such a "deal" in the city council minutes.

Noting that former city planner Steve Kountz and former parks director Jim Ponek had referred to keeping the area as "natural" open space, Marks said their statements "represent the thoughts and intents of two staff members" but "they do not bind the city council to a 'deal' unless there was an official action of the council. I have been unable to find such action."