Table of ContentsI.INTRODUCTION
| Acknowledgments Citizens for Healthy Neighborhoods would like to thank Mr. John Drew, the CEO of Athens Regional Medical Center for giving us permission to make and distribute copies of this plan. We would also like to acknowledge Eph Tunkle (all the way from Ypsilanti Michigan) who assisted us in producing the electronic copy of this document | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This report summarizes the Athens Regional Medical Center's proposed plan for future growth. Athens Regional Medical Center (ARMC) is proactively planning for its future to meet the growing health care needs of this community and the surrounding region. The population of Athens/Clarke County and surrounding counties is expected to continue on its path of growth. The number of persons over retirement age is also forecast to increase. These changes in the population will require additional capacity in health care services and facilities. The proposed Land Use Master Plan for ARMC is intended to respond to the health care needs of the community. In the past fifteen years, ARMC has improved its facilities with new buildings and renovations amounting to more than 150 million dollars. The recent growth has allowed ARMC to keep pace with the need for additional medical care in the community while remaining abreast of technology advancements and new services in health care. There is currently about 666,171 square feet of clinical and medical office space at ARMC, on a 39.19 acre campus. The master plan accommodates the expected need for an additional 539,500 square feet of clinical space and 402,000 square feet of medical office space, which would be added in phases as needed. The proposed ultimate size of the medical campus is approximately 61 acres. There are approximately 2,000 parking spaces at ARMC now, with a projected addition of 3,390 spaces over the next twenty years, resulting in a ratio of about 3.3 cars per thousand square feet of total building space. ARMC now has 315 beds and expects to grow to approximately 400 beds over the next twenty years to meet the increasing need for in-patient care. Additional information is provided in this report under the heading of Parking. This report outlines the planning considerations used to develop the proposed Land Use Master Plan. It presents information on expansion and improvement of existing facilities needed for ARMC to provide health care services in the community. The objectives of the proposed Land Use Master Plan include the creation of a compact and pedestrian-scale medical campus, improvement of access and circulation for patients and their families as well as medical center staff, enhancement of stormwater management and open spaces around the campus, and a logical strategy for phased implementation of the master plan. The proposed Land Use Master Plan accommodates the anticipated needs for increases in clinical building space, medical office space, and parking while preserving key areas of existing open space and adding new open space to create an attractive environment for the medical campus. Additional land must be acquired to provide space for these new and expanded facilities. The master plan shows the future boundaries of the medical campus, vehicular circulation system, as well as locations for clinical, medical office and parking facilities. II. Serving the Athens/Clarke County Community ARMC is the main health care provider for Athens/Clarke County. Additionally, ARMC is the primary regional medical center for residents in the six-county area surrounding Athens (the Primary Service Area), meeting the need for sixty-five percent of the region's health care services. ARMC also provides health care services in the larger fifteen-county region centered on Athens. This larger, Secondary Service Area has a population of 429,427 persons currently. Refer to Figure 1, Service Area Map. St. Mary's Hospital and Gilbert Health Center on the campus of the University of Georgia are the other health care providers in Athens. Charter Medical operates a major inpatient and outpatient behavioral medicine facility as well. ARMC is the primary provider of subspecialty medical/surgical services in the region including Neurosurgery, Emergency Trauma, Cardiovascular Surgery, and Interventional Cardiology. Refer to Figure 2, Location Map. ARMC currently has 315 beds. There is an ongoing need for additional "bed-days" as the population both grows and ages. Based on population projections prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau, Athens/Clarke County will grow from approximately 87,594 persons in 1990 to approximately 123,043 persons in 2018. The six-county area, or Primary Service Area, is expected to grow from approximately 108,157 persons in 1990 to approximately 161,809 persons in 2018. The fifteen-county area, or Secondary Service Area, is forecast to grow from approximately 179,759 persons in 1990 to approximately 243,143 persons in 2018. Refer to Figure 3, Population Forecast Chart. ARMC is anticipating that most visitors will continue to rely on the automobile for access to the medical center. The present ARMC medical campus has evolved from the original hospital site located at the corner of Prince Avenue and Talmadge Drive. ARMC is about one mile west of downtown Athens. Local access to the medical campus is primarily from Prince Avenue, with secondary access from King Avenue and Talmadge Drive. Regional access is from Loop 10 via Prince Avenue or Chase Street. Prince Avenue is a major commercial corridor leading into downtown Athens, accommodating five lanes of traffic. Almost one-third of the frontage along Prince Avenue from Loop 10 to downtown is made up of the U.S. Navy Supply School, ARMC, and Normaltown businesses. Many of the buildings along Prince Avenue, which were originally residential, have been removed or adapted to commercial uses. There are numerous medical-related businesses in proximity to ARMC. The ARMC campus includes two parcels. The main parcel of land, 34.5 acres along Prince Avenue, includes the medical center clinical and support facilities. The secondary parcel along Hillcrest Street, 6.5 acres about two blocks to the southeast of the main complex, serves as a storage facility. ARMC is surrounded by a variety of land uses. To the north across Prince Avenue are commercial establishments such as a pharmacy, medical equipment supply companies, service stations, convenience stores, and other businesses. To the northeast is the Boulevard Historic District, composed mainly of single-family residences, with some institutional, multi-family, and commercial activities. To the east of ARMC is the Cobbham Historic District, which has a concentration of quality traditional single family homes dating from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. To the south is a mid twentieth-century single family residential area, with commercial land uses along King Avenue about three-fourths of a mile away from ARMC. To the west are primarily multi-family and commercial activities toward Oglethorpe Avenue. West of Oglethorpe is the U.S. Navy Supply School. The Normaltown business district lies to the northwest along Prince Avenue. Refer to Figure 4, Neighborhood Context Map. As shown on Figure 5, ARMC property is zoned in four different land-use categories. The northern portion of the main campus is zoned Office/Institutional or O-I. The parcels west of Georgia Avenue are zoned RM-1, a multi-family residential district. The remaining parcels contiguous to the main campus area are a single-family residential district (RS-10). The large parcel to the south is zoned GB, or General Business. All of the lands surrounding the campus to the south, east and west are zoned residential, while the land to the north, across Prince Avenue, is zoned Local Business (LB), and O/I/B. Refer to Figure 5, Zoning Map. It would be beneficial to place the entire medical campus under a single zoning designation because it is an interconnected complex of facilities with a single purpose of providing health care services. The zoning category of Office/Institutional/Business (O/I/B) is viewed as the appropriate category to address the varied types of clinical, medical office and parking facilities now present and anticipated in the future at ARMC. [ACTION ITEM: Secure O/I/B zoning for property IV. Urban Design Considerations The proposed Land Use Master Plan for ARMC provides for a compact, pedestrian-friendly campus. The need for expansion of facilities is accommodated in close proximity to the existing main hospital, in order to minimize the need for additional land and to facilitate ease of movement of patients, visitors, staff, and materials between buildings. Parking is primarily provided in multi-level structures to minimize the area of surface parking. The master plan respects the traditional residential character of Prince Avenue by preserving the deep front yards, with their mature trees, as a green corridor along the north face of the medical campus. This "front yard zone" contributes to the campus-like visual quality of ARMC and provides an appropriate scale along the Prince Avenue street frontage using trees and ground-plane plantings to buffer the campus buildings. The two existing historic homes along Prince Avenue are retained to enhance the quality of the Prince Avenue corridor, including the brick structure now used as the Outpatient Surgery Center and the Talmadge House next door. The master plan provides a buffer to the residential edge to the south of the medical campus with a substantial open space. The open space would include storm water detention ponds, park-like lawn and landscape areas, tree groves, walking paths and similar features, serving not only medical campus users but also neighborhood residents. This buffer varies in width from one hundred feet to over two hundred feet. The master plan proposes a continuous open space buffer and setback of fifty feet along King Avenue, which would apply to future development. To accommodate increased traffic demand along King, provision should be made for acquisition of additional right-of-way (Refer to Appendix 2) to allow for a center left turn lane. We recommend that ARMC acquire necessary right-of-way on the east side of King, from Prince Avenue to Matthews Street, to facilitate the widening and thereby aid city/county government in addressing future traffic needs. V. Land Use Master Plan Description This report includes information on the long-range master plan, considered the twenty-year planning horizon. It also presents interim stages in the development of the ARMC medical campus at five-year and ten-year intervals. Each of the incremental plans share some common characteristics. These characteristics include the following:
hospital as the core of the campus. Unnecessary sprawl is avoided in the interest of creating a better medical campus and avoiding undue impacts on surrounding properties. VI. Alternatives to the Proposed Master Plan In the process of developing the proposed Land Use Master Plan for ARMC, multiple alternatives were studied. Every alternative used the same baseline of new building space and required parking. The alternatives prepared included five schemes: a) expansion toward the north; b) expansion toward the south; c) expansion toward the southwest; d) expansion toward the west; and e) expansion by density increase on the current campus. Key features of each alternative were identified, and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each scheme was completed. Based on this evaluation, a combination of the options was selected as the ideal arrangement for the ARMC medical campus. The primary features taken from the alternatives and used in the Land Use Master Plan are listed below.
The Twenty Year Land Use Master Plan (20 Year Plan) for ARMC addresses the ultimate facilities needed at this medical center location. The plan resolves the anticipated need for clinical space, medical office space, parking resources, vehicular and pedestrian circulation, storm water detention, and open space. The plan (refer to Figure 6: 20 Year Land Use Master Plan) depicts the maximum land area for the medical campus, generally bounded on the north by Prince Avenue, on the east by King Avenue, on the south by Sylvan Road and Belvoir Heights, and on the west by Oglethorpe Avenue. There is an important street connector proposed from the present corner of Pine Needle and Sylvan, westward to Oglethorpe to provide a conduit for arrivals and departures on the west. There is also an important connection proposed by extending Sylvan to King, to allow for cross campus circulation without using Prince Avenue or other local streets. Four clinical expansions are shown on this plan, including both vertical additions to present buildings and horizontal, contiguous additions to the South Tower of the main hospital. This approach provides for a more compact medical center, providing efficiencies in movement of people and materials by locating related functions in proximity to one other. This strategy also minimizes the need for additional land by using the envelope, vertically and horizontally, of the current facility to its maximum potential and efficiency. The Ten Year Land Use Master Plan (10 Year Plan), or middle phase, is more difficult to pinpoint than either the Five Year Plan or Twenty Year Plan due to the difficulty in forecasting when expansion of facilities will be needed. This middle phase (the period between the Five Year Plan and Twenty Year Plan) will be characterized by growth in medical office space and by small, incremental growth in clinical space as dictated by growth in demand. Refer to Figure 7: 10 Year Land Use Master Plan. The early phase of growth at ARMC involves a mixture of renovation, expansion of existing space and construction of new facilities. The first phase includes a medical building of 100,000 square feet (shown as MB-1 on Figure 8), 47,000 square feet of clinical space (shown as C-1 on Figure 8), and a 2,000 square feet Cancer Care Center (shown on Figure 8). The addition of a surface parking lot adjacent to MB-1 would meet the demand for additional campus parking. The clinical addition shown should address the need to add floors above the existing ER in the future without disruption of operations. Structural requirements should be put in place in the first phase of C-1 and renovation of the existing ER to allow vertical expansion of both buildings. Also proposed is a small building to house the Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment, to be located near the emergency room. Refer to Figure 8: 5 Year Land Use Master Plan. Continued growth of the ARMC complex is expected over the next twenty years in response to the health care needs of a growing and aging population in the Athens/Clarke County community and region. The forecast for growth of facilities and land area at ARMC is shown in Figure 9. The exact sequence and timing of new facilities and renovations may occur in different ways, however the overall plan is depicted in the 20 Year Plan. Refer to Figure 9: Phasing Chart. Figure 9: Phasing Chart
The expansion to occur in the 5 Year Plan is significant in terms of square footage of usable space added, increasing surface run-off more than any of the other phases of the Master Plan. During the 10 Year Plan, most of the additions will be vertical, keeping the total impervious surfaces and quantity of runoff similar to quantities as they exist at that time. The proposed addition of ten acres to the ARMC campus will increase the potential for infiltration, but because minor flooding problems currently exist during large storm events the capacity of the existing detention facility should be expanded during the 5 Year Plan. This enlargement will accommodate additional run-off created by the medical office building construction and its associated parking lot located on Talmadge Drive (shown as MB- 1 on Figure 8). The large local stormwater detention pond and park (located between
Belvoir Heights and the proposed Sylvan Road extension) should be constructed
as the 10 Year Plan is implemented. This feature will be able to take care
of growing run-off as the 20 Year Plan is implemented and will enhance
the neighborhood and ARMC integration process.
Sanitary Sewer The Athens/Clarke County Utilities Department evaluates sanitary sewer service capacity on a case-by-case basis early in the design process. A sanitary sewer sufficient for the 20 Year Plan should be installed initially (perhaps during the 5 Year Plan) because the installation of the sewer can be disruptive if not done at this time. Water Water service capacity is also evaluated on a case-by-case basis. No current water deficiencies exist, but fire and irrigation needs will result in higher peak demands. Therefore, new six-inch supply lines will need to be connected to existing water mains in Prince Avenue and King Avenue. Individual lines may be run as additional buildings are constructed during the development of the medical campus. Electric There are few impediments related to the expansion of the campus and the related electrical service. It is therefore recommended that the electrical and telecommunication systems be added as the need arises. Gas The existing gas lines are sufficient for existing conditions and future expansions. Gas lines should be extended as building capacities are increased and new buildings constructed. XIII. Fire Protection Considerations Fire department accessibility throughout the campus is a primary consideration. The proposed street connection from the present corner of Pine Needle and Sylvan westward to Oglethorpe, as well as the extension of Sylvan to King, will allow easy accessibility to all sides of the campus. This strategy offsets loss of accessibility due to the closing of Georgia Avenue, as shown on the twenty-year master plan. Fire Department access is provided on at least two sides of each building, and dead-end roads have been minimized. Where dead-ends occur, ample turnarounds for fire department apparatus have been provided. Currently Athens/Clarke County fire apparatus is limited to 102 vertical feet. The development of adequate parking, both in terms of supply and proximity, is a major component of the Land Use Master Plan. With the recent horizontal expansion to ARMC's parking deck, the campus is currently experiencing a situation where parking supply is exceeding parking demand. The approximately 2,000 campus-parking spaces are comprised of 575 spaces in parking lots and 1,425 spaces in their expanded parking structure. Observed parking occupancy over the past year indicates a peak parking demand of about 1,686 cars on campus at one time. It is good practice to develop about a ten percent (10%) safety cushion above actual parked vehicles for medical campuses. This parking surplus allows for seasonal parking demand peaks in patient/visitor activity and customer convenience in not having to search for limited parking stalls. In the case of ARMC, parking ratio targets have been established for both clinical space and medical office space for the 5, 10, and 20 Year Plans. Actual parking demands reflect a clinical target of 2.25 spaces per 1,000 square feet of building and a medical office target of 5.00 spaces per 1,000 square feet of building based on observed ARMC activity. The following table summarizes the campus development transition from the present, 1998, and projects parking demands for the 5, 10, and 20 Year master plan phases. The parking summary table identifies the effect of increasing the parking supply to coincide with campus building expansions of ARMC as those expansions occur. Figure 10, Summary of Campus Development Transition
(10% Safety Factor) Parking Supply Overview
The projected actual parking need of about 4,910 parking spaces represents a demand ratio of 3.0 spaces per thousand square feet of campus buildings. The proposed ARMC Land Use Master Plan suggests a parking supply of 5,390 spaces resulting in a ratio of 3.3 parking spaces per thousand square feet. Traffic Study Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Inc. (JJ&G) performed a traffic impact study in conjunction with the Athens Regional Medical Center (ARMC) 20 Year Plan. This report provides findings and recommendations concerning the impacts to the regional and local transportation network of the proposed expansion. Refer to Appendix 2 - Athens Regional Medical Center Land Use Master Plan Traffic Impact Study. In order to develop the campus as shown on the Master Land Use Plan, ARMC will need to acquire more property. Acquisition should proceed generally in keeping with the 5, 10, and 20-year phase needs. However, as opportunity arises, parcels should be acquired if they are within the boundary of the 20-year plan. Figures 6,7 and 8 show parcels required for each phase. Referto Figure 11 - Land Acquisition Plan. Action Item: ARMC should adopt a land acquisition strategy and budgets The following describes properties and activities of Athens Regional Medical Center at locations away from their main campus in Athens. These properties and activities include rented space for administrative functions because of a shortage of office space at the main complex, owned and rented office space for first care services, and land for future uses not yet determined. I. Athens/Clarke County B. North Athens Regional First Care. This facility is a walk-in and industrial medicine clinic serving the north Athens/Clarke County area. ARMC leases approximately 3,500 square feet of space at this one-acre location at Highway 29/8 and New Hull Road. C. Gaines School Road Site. This eight-acre parcel is located at Gaines School Road and Sunnyview. The property is currently undeveloped, and potential uses may include a walk-in clinic to serve the east side of Athens, a nursing home, an assisted living project, or some combination. There are no definite plans for the parcel at this time. B. Hog Mountain Road Site. This seven-acre parcel is located on Hog Mountain Road at Windsor Drive, west of Watkinsville. The property is not developed and is being retained for potential future clinic uses. C. Stone Bridge Site. This forty-acre tract is located in the Stone Bridge development (offices and residential) on Hog Mountain Road, a short distance north of the intersection with Experiment Station Road. The site is undeveloped and potential uses may include an assisted care retirement village. There are no definite plans for the parcel at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||