
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103150744
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: E-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Joel Turner
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

REZONING OK'D FOR HOSPITAL'S MAJOR EXPANSION

Roanoke City Council has approved rezoning to permit a major expansion of Roanoke Memorial Hospital that will include a new trauma center and emergency room, cardiac surgery operating rooms, intensive care units and other facilities.

Council also voted Monday night to close two short streets, Weller Lane and Park Road Southeast, and a portion of Belleview Avenue to allow the project that was announced last year.

The 300,000-square-foot addition, which will include eight floors, will be on the south side of the existing building, in what is now a parking lot.

The Planning Commission had recommended the rezoning.

The city, which had owned the parking lot and leased it to the hospital for $1 a year, agreed earlier to sell the property for the expansion project. The land had been part of the city's nearby Crystal Spring water supply, a spring that helps supplement the Carvins Cove and Falling Creek reservoirs.

There was no opposition to the rezoning or street closings during a public hearing.

Hospital officials said earlier they had discussed the expansion plans with representatives of the South Roanoke neighborhood organization.

Despite the expansion, hospital officials have said the parking and traffic problems in the area will be reduced because 300 employees will be transferred to Community Hospital when the pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology units are moved there.

by CNB