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Community Corner

Yale New Haven Hospital One Step Closer to North Haven Presence

Devine Street medical center site plan approved by Planning & Zoning Commission.

Yale New Haven Hospital’s plans to build an emergency care center in North Haven moved one step closer to fruition with the Planning & Zoning Board’s approval of its site plan application at last night’s meeting.

The board voted unanimously to approve the application after four members of the Yale New Haven team made a lengthy presentation.

The talk started with Norm Roth, the hospital’s senior vice president of administration, who has also appeared at recent town meetings to introduce the plan. He explained the hospital’s goal of meeting the needs of local residents by providing them with a care center closer to home that will offer speedier service than Yale New Haven.

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Next up was Brian McMahon, a civil engineer at Redniss & Mead, who showed detailed site plans for the 120,000 square foot former AT&T building at 6 Devine Street that will be renovated to create the new medical center. He outlined the new entrances that will be created to provide access to the emergency and imaging departments, the new tower elevator that will be installed, the layout of parking spaces, and the planting of evergreen trees that will be placed on a berm on one side of the center close to adjoining houses.

When questioned by James J. Giulietti, the commission chairman, about siren noise, Roth returned to explain that only six ambulances per day would enter the center, and they would be instructed to shut off their sirens when they pass the Devine Street traffic light.

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The intersection where the light is situated presents a traffic problem that Joseph Balskus, a traffic planner at Tighe & Bond, discussed during the next phase of the presentation. He downplayed the planned increase in traffic the center will cause, but said it will result in delays of more than a minute at the Devine Street intersection.

Roth was also asked to discuss the approval process for the medical center, which goes beyond the Commission’s authorization of the site plan. He noted state approval for the emergency department and radiology equipment is pending, and should be completed by August 1.

Prior to the Yale New Haven Hospital application, the Commission considered the site plan of its neighbor, the Castle Corporation, which owns the building at 8 Devine Street that will house a medical center run by Gaylord Wellness Associates. The Commission voted unanimously to approve that plan, too, after a similar presentation by Phillip Doyle, the LADA P.C. land planner.

Doyle described the plan to construct three buildings adjacent to the Health Fitness & Wellness Center, with sizes ranging from 22,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. One of the buildings will include a basement for medical records storage. The buildings will be brick with one featuring a gable roof.

Doyle showed detailed drawings of two of the buildings, but also displayed a rougher design for the third, which has yet to be contracted. Construction is planned to start on the first two buildings as soon as possible and completed by the end of the approval period.

Doyle also discussed parking and traffic issues, providing details on 215 planned parking spaces, and noting an increase of 2 percent in traffic with 600-800 vehicles expected on the premises during peak morning and afternoon periods.

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