"Laurelon, Melzer said, 'is a long-term play.'"
Now the cat comes out of the bag. The hospital’s “long-term play” is to eliminate a vital piece of our community: 136 of the most affordable housing units in the neighborhood.
According to SMC 23.69.032, the Master Planning Process is designed to ensure "livability and vitality of adjacent neighborhoods," while allowing some atypical growth of the institution.
Gobbling up 136 condos does not maintain livability by any stretch of the imagination.
The article just missed the Hospital’s in-process purchase of house #2 across the street. This is not a "super mitigation strategy," as Melzer claims. It is a way to silence dissent and avoid dealing with "livability and vitality.”
Excerpts, with emphasis added:
Children's high-rise plans worry its neighbors
by Peter Neurath
To meet the health-care needs of the growing number of children in this region, Children's
Does this planned expansion presage a time when the hospital will burst beyond its boundaries and buy up residential properties?
In a limited way, that process has already begun.
Bordering Children's Hospital on the west is the Laurelon Terrace, a 5.5-acre parcel with trees, shrubs and 20 garden-style buildings, mostly two stories, filled with 136 condominiums. (One is owned by this reporter.)
For now, Children's has indicated it will offer to buy Laurelon condos once the Laurelon's board has had time to consider its options and present a proposal. The board has hired The Buck Law Group to devise a plan and approach Children's with a proposal protecting the interests of the condo owners.
But 20 or 30 years from now, if the hospital owns enough Laurelon buildings, it might site its next facility there, said Dr. Sanford Melzer, senior vice president in charge of Children's' strategic planning and business development.
Laurelon, Melzer said, "is a long-term play."
...The hospital recently purchased one Laurelhurst home across the street from its Northeast 45th Street entrance.
Melzer said that as "a super mitigation strategy" for adjacent residents who are so unhappy with the hospital, Children's is willing to buy their homes.
"We bought one house in July and have talked to a couple other people," he said.
