Bridge Park micro-hospital proposal rejected
A proposal for a micro-hospital at the northeast corner of West Dublin-Granville Road and Dublin Center Drive is not to advance after the Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously rejected a concept plan for the two-story, 22,000-square-foot hospital on 1.5 acres.
Houston-based Nutex Health Inc. had proposed the hospital with eight beds, nine emergency-department treatment rooms, one trauma room and imaging and pharmaceutical services, open 24 hours, seven days a week.
The site where it was proposed for construction is part of a 6.7-acre lot that includes Fifth Third Bank.
For the proposal to advance, the applicant, Nutex Health Inc., is required to obtain approval of a concept plan, according to Zach Hounshell, a planner for the city of Dublin.
Approval of a concept plan is required before an applicant can seek approval of a preliminary development plan, said Hounshell.
Commission members, following the recommendation of city staff, unanimously rejected the concept plan June 9.
The city is not aware of any next step by Nutex, Aisling Babbitt, a public affairs officer for Dublin, said July 6.
Nutex representatives did not respond to multiple inquiries from ThisWeek News asking whether or not they intended to re-submit a concept plan.
Andrew Barnett, director of business development for Nutex, described their micro-hospital as “a concierge hospital.”
“There is no one doing what we are doing (and) we cater to,” Barnett told commission members.
Barnett said Nutex is physician-owned and operated and provides an alternative to patients waiting hours to be seen for non-life-threatening injuries in large, corporate-owned hospital systems.
Joe Miller, an attorney, told commission members that rejecting the concept plan would be “unlawful,” opining that it was required to be allowed to advance to the preliminary development-plan stage where concern about whether or not it met the criteria for a conditional use in the Bridge Park District zoning district could be vetted.
Further, Miller said the commission had set a precedent in 2017 by approving a similar proposal for a micro-hospital on the south side of West Dublin-Granville Road, north of Stoneridge Lane.
“Denial of this concept plan would be arbitrary and inconsistent with the treatment of other property owners,” Miller said.
“(Denial) would not just be a mistake, but arbitrary and inconsistent and therefore, unlawful.”
But Dublin’s city attorney said the criteria on which Dublin based its decision in 2017 has changed.
“Time has passed. This is a different site and a different Bridge Street corridor,” said Thad Boggs, assistant law director for Dublin.
Rebecca Call, chair of the planning and zoning commission, concurred.
Dublin’s city code “is a living, breathing document,” Call said.
As such, the commission, citing several elements of the proposal, said it was “not conducive” to the vision of the Bridge Street District, including the elements of vehicular access to the proposed micro-hospital in lieu of pedestrian access.
“We would love to see something like this in Dublin, but not (at this site),” Call said.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Dublin Planning and Zoning rejects Bridge Park micro-hospital proposal
