Stillwater officials sign off on plans for new $400M Lakeview Hospital

HealthPartners executives expect to begin construction of a new million Lakeview Hospital campus in Stillwater by the end of the month The Stillwater City Council on Tuesday night voted - to approve the organization s plans for the new Lakeview campus at the northeast corner of Minnesota Highway and Manning Avenue The vote covered a zoning map amendment rezoning site plan conditional-use permit planned unit rise height variance and preliminary and final plat Plans for the new hospital call for a six-story building totaling approximately square feet almost twice the size of the present Lakeview Hospital at Greeley and Churchill streets Expected to open in late or early the new -acre hospital campus will include crisis medicine advanced critical care and specialized centers for heart cancer and orthopedic care revealed Lakeview President Brandi Lunneborg Lunneborg reported the council that a new and expanded hospital is necessary because the population of the St Croix River Valley is expected to grow by an additional over the next five years and that could be an increase in the number of people and older The current hospital she revealed is already often at more than ceiling with no ability to grow in its current location This will give us the room to grow over the next years she reported adding that the new hospital campus is expected to create to new jobs in the first five years of operation Projections show an additional rise in in-patient care and expansion in crisis room visits by she noted and specialty-care services including cancer care orthopedics and heart care are expected to grow in demand by more than in the next five years This venture in our society is about two very major things meeting the requirements of the St Croix Valley and surrounding areas and providing more care options close to home she commented We ve been providing excellent care in a welcoming surroundings for years We look forward to carrying on that tradition as we grow with the district we serve The height of the hospital six stories exceeds the maximum height for the district by feet so a variance was required noted Ben Gutknecht the city s planning manager Mayor Ted Kozlowski noted he was concerned about the height of the new building until he realized the Washington County Regime Center in Stillwater is almost as tall if not taller You ve demonstrated the need he announced The building plan that you have designed makes sense for wellness care I m excited about this But I want to make sure we do everything we can to minimize disturbance to neighbors The council on Tuesday night also voted not to require an environmental-impact declaration a detailed environmental review of the project The council by a - vote deemed that the environmental assessment worksheet that was done was sufficient Mitigation will be required to be provided in the final design of the project where impacts of possible environmental effects have been identified Gutknecht revealed Among the concerns raised in comments in response to the EAW snow storage and chloride impacts truck access to the loading receiving area sustainable and resilient building construction tree replacement trails building height and lighting noise in the loading receiving area as well as general traffic noise bird-friendly construction and practices groundwater and wellhead protection pollinator habitat reuse of stormwater for irrigation dust suppression wetland impacts and state and heat-island considerations No one spoke during the public-comment session of the meeting Council member Larry Odebrecht disclosed he is excited about the project All three of my kids and my wife were born at Lakeview he mentioned This is a - -year project for the city It s an incredibly essential piece of infrastructure for the city The council also voted on Tuesday night to spend to purchase a strip of land along Minnesota Highway right now owned by the Minnesota Department of Transportation for a new parking lot proposed for Lumberjack Landing the city s new park north of downtown The parking lot will be located north of the existing city-owned parking lot and north of the Manitou Fund Arts and Teaching Building When working on the preliminary design of the new lot it came to the city s attention that a portion of the new lot and a portion of the existing lot encroach onto MnDOT s right of way revealed Shawn Sanders director of citizens works They gave us the price of for the purchase of the land Sanders explained Sold reported Kozlowski