The first Wednesday evening of the month is the Parkland-Spanaway-Midland Land Use Advisory Commission. This evening, Pacific Lutheran University brought a concept of their new medical facilities. This Planned Unit Development (PUD) includes a health center for teaching with real patients, an office building, and a hospital.

The team brought in a packet of information and some slide print outs. There was a sketch with a red rectangle representing the health center. There were no indications of where the other buildings might be. There is a set aside of ten acres for conservation, where the new Parkland Trail will come through. You can see the red rectangle below where the health center will be located.

In testimony, participants questioned the lack of specificity. There was no drawing of a building, no curbs, sidewalks, gutters, trees, landscaping, traffic study or other details. There was a conceptual building size of 75,000 square feet. There was also talk of a hospital that may be built later, up to 140 feet high (6 stories).

The reason all of this is vague is that PLU is a Master Planned Campus. When a master plan is involved, the rules of what details must be disclosed are, well, preapproved. Unless the development regulations have been changed, the master plans are good to go without input from the LUAC, because there are no variances. LUAC’s only see projects that are outside of what is considered typical.

Granted, a traffic study would be a bonus for an area of residential housing around the outside of the campus. However, the neighbors are already well aware they are adjacent to a college campus, and that it will be developed as a campus. Tehaleh is another example of a Master Planned Community. It benefits from similar streamlined processes.

There is a general vicinity that all this new medical facility stuff will be happening. Everyone learned that part. What it looks like probably will not be a red rectangle. They will reveal that later. Right now, PLU is giving just enough to make sure the planning follows the current rules, until the rules change again.

In addition to Mark Mulder’s questions about vague designs and lack of a traffic study which make the application seem incomplete, Marianne Lincoln commented regarding the 10 acres set aside for conservation. Her comments were an offer to partner with PLU as they plan the conservation land, since her experience is in history, native plants, restoration, and watershed impacts.

The health center plan will wind its way through the planning commission, hearings examiner, and other county hurdles. As far as when you will see the bricks being laid, no one really knows yet.