Planning board votes to support new NCH heart and stroke center in downtown Naples

Through a series of votes, the Planning Advisory Board decided to recommend in favor of a new $200-million heart and stroke center adjacent to the NCH Baker Hospital in downtown Naples.

The support didn't come easily – or unanimously.

The next stop is city council, which will make the final decision on whether the ambitious project gets built, with a first reading scheduled for January.

The advisory board's decision on three related petitions came on Wednesday after a long day of additional presentations, discussions and public testimony, for and against the project.

The meeting ran for nearly 10 hours, with a few breaks.

It followed a more than six-hour hearing on Nov. 8, which resulted in the board delaying action for more than a month and asking NCH and its team to come back with more information to address myriad concerns, everything from traffic flow and parking to landscaping and building height.

Between meetings, NCH submitted hundreds of pages of additional information for the board's review, in support of its petitions. Its team presented exhaustive details about the need for the project, and why it must be built as proposed to meet operational requirements and standards, down to the measurements of each floor.

NCH wants to build a five-story heart center where the Telford Education Center is located, immediately south of and attached to its hospital, off Seventh Street North.

More: Naples planning board delays NCH heart project to get more answers

And: NCH Heart Institute gets preliminary approval from Naples design board

Paul Hiltz, president and CEO of the NCH Healthcare System, described the project as the "logical next step" to providing great health care at the hospital.

He pointed out the many changes that had been made to the project to address neighborhood and community concerns since NCH first proposed it a few years ago, including increasing setbacks, reducing building height and adding a linear park.

"I think in the end we are looking for the same thing," he remarked. "We are looking for great health care."

Ultimately, the project requires a rezoning, along with conditional use and site plan approvals from city council.

The Planning Advisory Board voted on each petition. It took three times to reach a favorable decision on one of them, after a host of conditions were attached to it, with hopes city council would require them.

Once again, a new parking garage stirred debate, with a few board members strongly against it, seeing it as unnecessary. The multi-story garage would have 375 spaces, at a height of 40 feet.

Among the conditions the board has recommended is limiting the height of the garage to 30 feet, if the project gets a thumbs up from city council. However, NCH contends it needs every space it's asked for, as even with the new garage it would have less parking than it does today with an expanded hospital.

Vice chairman John Cross expressed the most angst about the garage – and the project in general, getting down into the nitty-gritty details of it.

He peppered NCH and its development team with questions for hours, including how they'd ensure mahogany and other street trees are protected during construction and how they'd make sure a lake on the site is free of heavy metals, such as copper.

Some criticized Cross for "getting into the weeds," and dragging out the discussions, including a few of his fellow board members. In the end, he attempted to address many of his concerns by attaching several conditions to the board's recommendations for approvals.

Even with the conditions, however, Cross still voted against all three petitions.

The rezoning and conditional use petitions passed by a narrow vote of 4-3.

The board voted 5-2 in favor of the site plan.

Member Jennifer Fiore opposed all of the petitions, too, mostly due to the location and intensity of the project, including its height.

“The hospital is a great idea, but there’s a time and there’s a place. And the time might be now, but I don’t necessarily know that this is the place for such a drastic expansion in size and scope,” she said.

The new healthcare building, spanning 189,000 square feet, would exceed the city's height limit of 42 feet, with a maximum height of 87 feet.

Last October, city council added a “community hospital” as a permitted use in a public services zoning district on NCH’s behalf as a potential work around the 42-foot height limit.

Other conditions the Planning Advisory Board is suggesting to council include requiring wayfinding and directional signage to make parking easier for patients and visitors and reducing the size of signage on the new health care building, so it's not seen by its residential neighbors.

Project supporters urged the planning board to move forward expeditiously, stressing that every minute matters in the case of a heart attack or stroke. They argued the state-of-the art institute would ensure fast access to advanced critical care for city residents – and others living nearby.

Opponents continued to question the location, size and scope of the project, and to argue it's out of character with the surrounding neighborhood and doesn't fit with the city's comprehensive plan, or its vision to maintain its small-town charm.

During discussions, several Planning Advisory Board members criticized NCH for a public relations campaign they felt unfairly targeted them for their scrutiny, stressing they were just trying to do their job, not delay the project, as implied.

Board members disclosed they received hundreds of emails about the project in recent weeks, with about 95% of them in favor of it.

More spoke for the project at the meeting than against it, including business and community leaders, homeowner association presidents, and former heart patients, whose lives were saved at the hospital, when seconds counted.

Michael Wynn, a long-time business owner and life-long resident of Naples, was among the supporters, telling the board he saw no reason to push the pause button on progress, or a well-established spirit of collaboration and innovation, with a project that promises to elevate the quality of life and health care services in the city. He serves as the vice chairman for NCH's board of trustees.

"This project will unequivocally save the lives of countless Naples residents that otherwise would not survive, by bringing the most skilled surgeons and advanced technology to our city," he said.

While several planning board members expressed concerns about NCH's ability to fund and operate the heart institute as a nonprofit, Jonathan Kling, NCH’s chief operations officer, reassured them it wasn't facing any financial problems, whatsoever.

"There is no issue," he said.

Roughly $195 million of the project cost has already been raised through donations.

In case you missed it: NCH heart project set for Dec. 13 review by Naples Planning Board. What to know about it

In a statement Thursday, Kling said: “We appreciate the tremendous outpouring of support from our community at the PAB (Planning Advisory Board) meeting yesterday. The thoughtful discussion and collaboration with the PAB resulted in a positive recommendation to move forward and we look forward to our first reading with the city in January.”

He added: “We are reviewing the parking garage recommendations from the PAB and will continue to listen to our neighbors and review solutions as we proceed with this project.”

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: New NCH heart and stroke center in Naples clears planning hurdle