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Nursing-home plan resurfaces in Munson
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - February 10, 2010)
Nursing-home plan resurfaces in Munson
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
A 108-bed nursing home proposed for Munson Township in 2007 and then abandoned has resurfaced.
Township Zoning Inspector Timothy Kearns said last week that developers returned about two weeks ago to reintroduce the project.
Developer Thomas E. Bartlebaugh, who initially met with township and county officials in September 2007, visited Mr. Kearn's office to say developers are again interested in bringing the nursing home to the township.
Mr. Kearns said it appears that the proposal will closely follow what originally had been proposed in 2007.
Developers plan to build the approximately 30,000- to 35,000-square-foot building on 10.62 acres owned by University Hospitals Heather Hill senior care facility at Mayfield (Route 322) and Bass Lake roads.
Mr. Kearn said the project is to be located at the far west end of the Heather Hill property with access to Mayfield Road.
The only difference between the earlier proposal and the one that is to be considered is that Mr. Bartlebaugh plans to lease the land, rather than buy it. In 2007, he said he did not want to entertain the idea of leasing the land. "I'm not going to spend $10 million on someone else's land," he had said.
Mr. Bartlebaugh's proposal in 2007 coincided with University Hospitals' plans to shut its nursing-home component in its elderly-care campus. The hospital continued it operations of two assisted-living facilities, including one specializing in Alzheimer's patients, a hospital component and a short-term rehabilitation center.
The closing of the nursing home led to the loss of 120 jobs. Mr. Bartlebaugh pledged to bring back 100 jobs with his new nursing home.
He said the trend in nursing homes is to provide smaller settings for 80 to 120 persons, rather than the larger institutions of old that held 200 to 300 people. He said he had no plans to expand the new nursing home beyond the proposed 108 beds.
Joyce M. Bond, a landscape architect with CT Consultants, said in 2007 that the facility would be built in a double-X configuration, with the X's joined at the top and bottom, and an open courtyard in the middle. The building was proposed to be 492 feet long and 200 feet wide. She called those plans "conceptual" at that time.
Mr. Kearn said developers have indicated they plan to begin clearing the land. He said there are no regulations that would prevent them from moving forward with the clearing.
The initial proposal had raised some concerns for local zoning officials who questioned whether it met several aspects of the township's special zoning for the property.
Officials questioned whether the proposal met the 60 percent open-space rule and whether the land being proposed for the development would be on what is considered part of the open space for the University Hospitals' facility.
Mr. Kearns said the issue of whether the new facility can share the water wells now owned by University Hospitals must be addressed.
The University Hospital facility provides no tax dollars to the township because of its tax-exempt status. The new nursing home, however, will provide property taxes to the township.
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