HCA Healthcare withdraws application for new South Lakeland hospital after public outcry
The Hospital rezoning request from HCA Healthcare for a new 60-bed hospital in South Lakeland has been withdrawn and the item removed from the Nov. 22 Polk County Commission agenda, according to county officials.
HCA Healthcare had asked Polk County to change the zoning to accommodate a hospital along County Road 540-A at Harrell’s Nursery Road, but the planning commission had voted against recommending the project to the county commissioners after outcry from residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.
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“After careful consideration, please be advised that the applicant is withdrawing the above referenced application,” said a letter from Jo Thacker, an attorney for HCA Healthcare, which owns the land under the name June 35 LLC.
The letter was dated Nov. 8 and addressed to Benjamin J. Ziskal, Polk County’s director of the land development division, and shared via email late Thursday by Erik Peterson of the planning department.
The 29-acre site had gained a supportive recommendation from county planners for rezoning. But several planning board members expressed concerns about potential disruptions to the surrounding neighborhoods and schools. The parcel is currently zoned for residential use and is sandwiched between Valleyview Elementary School and George Jenkins High School along County Road 540-A.
HCA had presented architect renderings that showed a 120-bed hospital during its Planning Commission presentation as well as two medical office buildings. The hospital campus also would contain an emergency room and helicopter pad and a large stormwater retention pond along County Road 540-A.
The entrance would be along the main road with a smaller driveway to a parking lot at the rear along Harrell’s Nursery Road.
Following the rejection by the planning commission, the next step would have been a decision by the Polk County Commission on Nov. 22.
Residents living in subdivisions near the land were happy to hear about the withdrawn application. A petition to stop the hospital project at Change.org had reached 1,216 signatures by Friday.
"Our family neighborhoods are to be cherished and a hospital next to them and our two schools would have been devastating to us," said Laura Coyle, who led the online petition and formed a Facebook page titled No Hospital at Harrell's Nursery/540-A.
"Ultimately this is not the right location for a hospital," she said in a Facebook message. "This process has brought us closer together as a community, and for that I am grateful. I want to thank my neighbors, county commissioners, and staff for being part of the process in having our voices heard."
The land at 6015 Harrell's Nursery Road was once the homestead of Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who sold the land to June 35 LLC, which lists the Nashville, Tennessee, headquarters of HCA Healthcare as its address in state records.
The acreage now zoned Residential Low-2 density is bordered on two sides by subdivisions containing single-family homes, including Highlands Ridge, Chatsworth and Eagles Pointe. A fourth subdivision, Hickory Ridge, exists across the four lanes of County Road 540-A.
Coyle was among several residents within a 500-foot radius of the property who received notices this summer in a letter from Polk County about the proposed project in their residential neighborhood. HCA had requested a zoning change to an institutional designation.
Since then, the neighborhood placed red signs expressing their opposition to the hospital in their yards and amassed a contingent of residents opposed to the plan who showed up at the planning commission meeting.
The now-withdrawn hospital proposal is within the six-mile radius of several other medical facilities either under construction or already in operation. Watson Clinic's Highlands office, complete with an urgent care, is less than a half mile to the west. Bartow Regional sits on U.S. 98, just north of Bartow. And Orlando Regional Health recently gained county approval for a facility on Lakeland Highlands Road. HCA also operates an emergency facility on South Florida Avenue across from the Merchants' Walk shopping center.
In addition to the existing facilities, residents told the planning commission that traffic backs up on County Road 540-A during arrival and dismissal times for the elementary school. They also expressed concerns about the safety of the students trying to learn next to a 24 hour-per-day, seven-day-a-week emergency room, ambulances with sirens on and helicopter pad for airlifting patients.
This story will be updated. Check back for more.
Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Controversial proposal for HCA hospital in South Lakeland withdrawn
