Medical facility could go to Missoula

North Star Institute, a not-for-profit venture based in Whitefish, has announced it will not build a 24-bed comprehensive-treatment facility for eating disorders near North Valley Hospital.

Groundbreaking for the $4.6 million facility here was slated for this spring, but partners Steve Bryson and John Bennett say they're now looking at an 8.5-acre site just west of Lolo, which is about 10 miles south of Missoula.

The two are working with the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. (MAEDC) and hope to qualify for up to $450,000 in federal stimulus money available for 'shovel-ready" projects.

Dick King, president and CEO of MAEDC, said Bryson and Bennett contacted them, and MAEDC put North Star in contact with a Realtor. MAEDC did not recruit North Star away from the Flathead, King said.

"That's one of the Ten Commandments of economic development," he said.

King also said MAEDC has not discussed financing with North Star, and he wasn't sure when they could break ground.

Craig Aasved, the former North Valley Hospital CEO, is credited with getting Bryson and Bennett interested in the Whitefish medical campus. He is now CEO at St. Patrick Hospital, in Missoula, and has said he had nothing to do with North Star Institute's decision to relocate.

Bryson says more than two years of research, planning and development has gone into the project, and he and Bennett can't wait another year. The nearest eating-disorder treatment facility is more than 600 miles away.

The partners announced in July 2008 that they had signed a letter-of-intent with North Valley Hospital for a lease/purchase agreement for four acres on the hospital's new medical campus.

The hospital would provide inpatient hospital care for medically-compromised patients before transferring them to the eating-disorder facility. The hospital would also provide dietary, laboratory, laundry and maintenance services.

Bryson says the 'streamlined" planning approval process in Missoula will enable North Star Institute to begin construction for their facility there this summer and qualify the project for federal stimulus money. The facility would open by summer 2010.

Whitefish planning director David Taylor, however, says that despite delays caused by North Valley Hospital, which handled the application process because it owns the land, the city was doing its best to accommodate the developers' need to speed up the planning process.

Taylor said city staff first met with representatives of the hospital and the developers for site review last July 31 and outlined the process needed for approval. Because the project would be a major expansion of the hospital campus, several extra steps were required, including amending the hospital's neighborhood plan and the planned unit development (PUD) for the campus. The amendments would require both planning board and city council approval.

The site chosen for the proposed 29,300-square-foot eating-disorder facility and additional 17,600-square-foot Phase 2 medical offices was originally designated in the PUD as open space and public trails connecting to a nearby youth athletic complex.

The city public works department also had concerns about relocating a drainage swale and whether an existing stormwater detention pond was too small for the expansion. Public works also requested an updated traffic study.

Once the hospital submitted a formal application for the PUD and neighborhood plan amendments, a public hearing before the planning board was scheduled for January. The hospital, however, requested the hearing be postponed because it didn't have all the required submittal information.

City planners rescheduled the hearing for March, but a traffic study had not been submitted and the hearing was postponed again.

Taylor said city councilor Turner Askew, who also sits on the hospital board, came to the city planning offices on March 26 hoping for a fast-track approval process so the project could be eligible for federal stimulus money, and he asked about the time table.

Hospital engineer Joe Grabowski brought in a new application to the planning office on March 31, although it was still missing the traffic study.

Taylor said city staff was willing to schedule the project for a public hearing with the planning board even without the study, but it would be May 21, not April 15, as the hospital had hoped.

The normal application deadline for the April meeting was March 2. State-mandated public noticing rules required a legal notice be published on March 26 and notifications to adjacent property owners be sent out by April 1.

If the application was placed on the May 21 planning board agenda, the soonest the amended PUD could officially go into effect would be July 15, since it would require two city council meetings and a 30-day wait-period after adoption, Taylor said.

But the city was willing to expedite the architectural review and building permit process so North Star Institute could break ground sooner, he said.

Taylor also noted that other sites in town were 'shovel ready" for the eating-disorder facility, including the Baker Commons subdivision next to The Wave, which would not require a PUD amendment and allows medical facilities as a use-by-right.

Askew said North Valley Hospital will continue to move ahead with the PUD amendment and try to get it 'shovel ready" by June 1, when the Whitefish City Council holds its first hearing on the application.

"They could have a building permit on June 2," Askew said.