Park Slope Community Board Rejects Methodist Hospital's Expansion Plan
At a packed community board meeting last night, Park Slope Community Board Six’s land use committee voted no on Methodist Hospital’s request for a zoning variance to expand its facilities, The Brooklyn Eagle reported. Hundreds packed the auditorium for the four-hour meeting. The chair warned at the beginning that it might not have time to…
At a packed community board meeting last night, Park Slope Community Board Six’s land use committee voted no on Methodist Hospital’s request for a zoning variance to expand its facilities, The Brooklyn Eagle reported. Hundreds packed the auditorium for the four-hour meeting. The chair warned at the beginning that it might not have time to take a vote. Speakers testified they were concerned about the scale of the proposal and the impact on traffic in the neighborhood.
The committee rejected the proposal because it would alter the character of the neighborhood and was not the “minimum that could be requested,” said the Eagle. Some meeting attendees said they thought Methodist should expand by taking over the troubled LICH hospital in Cobble Hill instead.
Above and after the jump, renderings of the proposed facility. The vote is non binding.
Park Slope’s CB6 Sends Methodist Expansion Plan Back to Drawing Board [Brooklyn Eagle]
Renderings Via Methodist
Classic People’s Democratic Republic of Park Slope NIMBYism. How is this expansion out of character with the immediate surrounding neighborhood? There is a giant hospital complex taking a full square block across the street from the site of this proposed project. On the block of the proposed site there is already a large medical office building and a below street grade parking garage. And on the next block is a giant high school building. The few brownstones the hospital wants to tear down are already occupied by doctor’s offices related to Methodist Hospital. They have a right to build on their property. The variances they are asking for are not to make a ridiculously high building. The need variances to building setbacks in a way that enables them to create the square footage they need utilizing multiple setbacks to minimalize shadows cast on neighboring homes and lower the visual appearance from viewpoint of the surrounding sidewalks. It’s true. there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the future healthcare needs of the entire borough and whether this expansion makes sense for all of Brooklyn. Perhaps an argument could be made that these services should be created elsewhere in Brooklyn. But Methodist hospital isn’t obligated to serve all of Brooklyn. They have a responsibility to do what makes the best fiscal sense for their operation’s longevity.
Yes, any resistance to mindless expansion is knee jerk NIMBYism. Let’s not have an enriching debate about how health care is best provided, let’s shut it down before it begins. The free market system has provided us with such a great health care, why challenge the powers that be – they know best, right?