Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412210043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The new location is on 110 acres at the southeast corner of the interchange of I-81 and Virginia 177, off Barn Road, about a mile south of the former site. The hospital took out one-year options to purchase the land from three property owners last week, hospital executive Bob Barbatti said Thursday.
"That is being considered as our primary location if all the things fit together," Barbatti said. "There's a lot of ifs right now."
Topography, new zoning rules and a change in treatment philosophy that called for a more spread-out, single-story building were catalysts for the new site, Barbatti said.
Radford Community last month notified state regulators it intends to apply for a certificate of need for the new building by Jan. 1. That would kick off a state review that should lead to the approval or rejection of the new hospital by June. The target for opening the $50 million replacement hospital would still be late 1998.
The area is at the far end of the Route 177 Corridor Overlay District, a special zoning district the county adopted last month. Though the four-laning of Virginia 177 to the interstate should be finished next year, Radford and Montgomery had not expected the area around the new site to develop until 2005.
"It looks like we'll have to make some adjustments to that," said Joe Powers, Montgomery's planning director.
Hospital executives met with county Public Service Authority officials Dec. 9 to talk about the change and how it would affect water and sewer line planning.
"We are ready to cooperate in any way we can," said Ira Long, PSA board chairman. He said the PSA would expect Radford Community to pay to extend an existing sewer line across I-81 from the Bethel area. The hospital also would have to pay to connect into Radford's water system at Rock Road, a nearly two-mile extension. No cost estimate has been prepared, but a year-old study predicted a $400,000 cost to build a water line half that length, PSA Director Gary Gibson said.
Most other local officials - and possible neighbors of the new hospital - learned of the change earlier this week as surveying and other tests were conducted on the land.
"As far as the county's concerned, I don't think it will impact [us] one way or the other," said Larry Linkous, chairman of the Montgomery Board of Supervisors. Linkous, who is meeting with hospital officials next week, said there still would be related, revenue-producing growth around the hospital.
But for Radford, just where that related growth would occur is a concern.
Nearly five years ago, the hospital announced plans to move from a tightly developed residential area in central Radford to a large tract it owns on the west side of Virginia 177, roughly midway between the Radford line at Rock Road and I-81.
Since then, Radford and Montgomery officials passed a major corridor agreement to share tax revenues and control expected development in that 3,000-acre gateway to Radford, in lieu of having the city attempt to annex the area from Montgomery.
But if the new hospital-related growth occurs too far to the south, it will be outside the Route 177 corridor and Radford won't get the tax benefits. "It doesn't look like the center of the corridor will be the area of the most immediate growth," Radford City Manager Bob Asbury said. Original plans called for the area to grow from the city line outward. Now "it looks like it's going to be a reverse growth pattern."
Part of that Route 177 pact included stricter development rules, which the county Board of Supervisors approved last month. Those new rules are part of the reason Radford Community, a Carilion Health System affiliate, sought the new site.
Initially, Radford Community officials envisioned a traditional, multistory building as a replacement hospital, something that would fit easily on the original site. But then the hospital shifted to a philosophy of "patient-focused care," which stresses better integration of the various components of a hospital to shorten stays and cut costs.
Such an approach is better served with a one-story hospital, Barbatti said. That would have required an expensive, major leveling of the original Virginia 177 site, something that's discouraged by the new zoning laws, he said. The new site is more amenable to a building with a larger "footprint." It also may be partially outside the Route 177 corridor. A survey, to be finished next week, should clarify where the new site is in relation to the corridor boundary.
Staff writer Rick Lindquist contributed to this report.
by CNB