Photo by Liz Ellaby
Mayor Frank Brocato sees the hospital as a way to diversify Hoover’s retail-reliant economy.
A questioning crowd of more than 140 people, many wary of city plans to incentivize the relocation of a Bessemer hospital to Trace Crossings, demanded answers from city leaders at a public forum Sunday that ran overtime by 45 minutes. Sixteen lined up at the microphone after a lengthy presentation in favor of the move by Mayor Frank Brocato, City Administrator Allan Rice, Fire Chief Clay Bentley and Councilor John Lyda who organized the meeting.
Brocato has been working for 18 months to steer the UAB Health System-affiliated Medical West hospital to Hoover from its earlier plan to move off I-459 in McCalla. Hoover Trace Crossings residents said they have only been informed officially of the plan this month. On Sunday, three speakers praised the proposal as showing foresight, while others asked about housing values, additional traffic, environmental impact and how a city emerging from a deficit could pay the $20 million offered to bring the facility to the Stadium Trace Village shopping center.
Resident Todd Deffenbaugh asked if the $20 million incentive was negotiable, and how it was calculated. Lyda said that , in a meeting with Medical West officials, he was told the amount was not negotiable, but Councilman Curt Posey took the mic to disagree.
“No deal is done right now,” he said, adding that UAB was not the only partner in the venture. “We’ve had one meeting with Med West where they shared information. …That’s it folks. That’s the only time the council members have spoken with them.”
Several questions about future traffic congestion were answered by Skipper Consulting. The firm’s principal said there were plans for four access points to the site. The primary access would be from John Hawkins Parkway across from Princeton Way, to carry about 60% of the traffic, he said. Three other roads planned — if the hospital is moved — would extend from the end of Emery Drive, from Stadium Trace Parkway further south and from Brock’s Gap.
Jennifer Paepcke of Stadium Trace said the hospital would bring “a lot of toilets” to an area with known sewage problems. She was equally concerned with the push to build now and add roads as needed, getting applause for each of her points.
“I want to make sure we put our resources first instead of thinking about resources on the back end,” she said. “As far as traffic, I love the fact that someone is thinking about putting another road in. Let’s build the road first and then think about the hospital.”
Two speakers, along with members of the Bessemer City Council, spoke in favor of the McCalla location. Councilman Jesse Matthews said the move would put west Jefferson communities even farther from hospital services. He said Bessemer deserved better than psychiatric and rehab outpatient services planned for the current facility.
“I think that area will just decay,” he said after the meeting.
Amy Flynn, a resident who worked at UAB for 20 years, said that the infrastructure and service costs of expected hospital expansion would far exceed the $20 million incentive. Her main concern was availability of land, which was more favorable in McCalla.
“It’s not just going to stay in this particular spot,” she said of the proposal. ”You are going to need more parking spots, more parking decks. Right now in downtown, you don’t even have the places for employees to park.”
Medical West was built in 1964 as Memorial Hospital and operated under different names and owners, most recently the UAB Health System, which took over in the early 2000s. Today it is governed by an independent board under an affiliation agreement with the UAB entity. With outdated facilities, Medical West is proposing a new $412 million full-service hospital with 220 inpatient beds, including emergency, a helipad, obstetrical/nursery and pediatric care, neonatal intensive care, diagnostic/imaging and surgical services. The regulatory process to obtain a Certificate of Need allowing the move could take two years or more.
The current hospital has 310 beds, but has only semi-private rooms and would cost more to retrofit for modern needs than to build new, Hoover leaders said.
A Hoover-commissioned economic impact study, presented earlier this month, said the hospital employs 1,000 people now and would probably add another 181 full time jobs in the first five years of operation. Another 1,700 jobs would be created during the two years of construction on the 500,000 square foot complex, which would comprise a medical office building and parking deck, it said. The $20 million is in play to buy land and defray development costs. The Bessemer location will remain open for outpatient services, adding psychiatric and rehabilitation services.
Hoover officials spent nearly the first hour of the meeting making a case for the move to the 60-acre tract. The move would add an emergency room to the area, reducing ER diversions at busy hospitals and ambulance travel times, they said. Brocato pointed to expected associated growth of sales and property taxes by $1.2 million per year during construction and $2.2 million by the fifth year of operation. The city has just added $500,000 to the budget for a road study and plans to build another road out of Trace Crossings.
“I think about y’all every day,” he told the Trace Crossings crowd.
This article was updated at 10:13 p.m. to correct attribution for a comment made by Councilman John Lyda regarding whether the $20 million in incentives was negotiable and to correct the name of the resident who asked the question.
