23B-046 (211) I hope this letter adequately explains our situation and I
hope you can help us by writing a letter to:
John O' Donnell, Ed.D, M.P.H.
Program Director
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Office of Human Services
Department of Public Health
Determination of Need Program
150 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02111
If you would just explain the need for the special permit,
the timeframe for obtaining one for each project, and any
other relevant information.
The State requires a response ten days after we received
their notification (Sept. 30) . The State is not holding us
to this date, but there is some urgency to this response.
Thank you so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Mark Richman
Director of Marketing and Planning
From my understanding through our attorney, William E.
Dwyer, any new construction on the hospital campus requires
a special permit. He also said that a principal use of a
structure for hospital purposes is not permitted anywhere in
Northampton.
I was very concerned about this because large capital
expenditures such as for the new addition can only be
submitted once a year on September 1 . Thus, if the
application is not accepted, we would have to delay the
project by an entire year. This would mean the costs of
the project would increase and the hospital would have to
live with all the problems this project was going to remedy
for another year. The time frame for the expansion project
is quite a distance in the future because projects of this
nature usually take the State at least two years to approve.
We really do not anticipate initiating construction until
1989, and the project will not be complete until 1991 .
Because of this long time span before actual work is done on
the project and the pressures to finalize this project , we
were reluctant to take it to Zoning at this time. We really
did not anticipate these problems with the State since I
know of other circumstances recently where Determinations of
Need were obtained and then, zoning problems occurred
afterwards (i .e. , the proposed nursing home in Hadley) .
Furthermore, we are not purchasing new land and we have
operated as a hospital on this site for over 100 years .
Naturally, this situation concerns me greatly. However, I
was very relieved this morning after I spoke to one of the
attorneys at the Department of Public Health. Apparently,
there is a big difference according to the Determination of
Need regulation whether a variance or special permit is
needed. The situation is much better and our applications
will be accepted if you can explain to them that all that is
needed is a special permit for both these projects . The
regulation states that the application will be accepted if
authorized by applicable zoning by law or ordinance
whether or not by special permit. " If it requires a full
variance, it probably would not be accepted and would cause
us great problems because the regulation states that the
application will be accepted only if " . . . the purpose is
not authorized under applicable zoning by-laws or ordinance
and variance has been received. "
c
D
4=s Hos ins�n
30 Locust Street
Northampton,
MA 01060-9990
(413)584-4090
October 8 , 1986
Edward Tewhi l l
Building Inspector
City Hall
212 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Dear Mr. Tewhill:
As we discussed on the telephone yesterday, the State of
Massachusetts' Determination of Need Office is uncertain
whether to accept our two recent Determination of Need
applications because of zoning issues . I am hoping you
could resolve this by writing a letter to the State.
I will try to explain the problem. On September 1 , 1986 ,
The Cooley Dickinson Hospital filed two Determination of
Need applications . One application is for the purchase of a
stationary full-body Computerized Tomography (CT) Scanner
for $634 ,252. This involves renovations to the existing
physical plant of the hospital and a very small amount of
expansion (625 square feet) . The second application is for
the construction of a 38 ,240 square foot addition to the
hospital. Because the new addition will consist of four
floors , it will only extend outward from the existing
hospital a maximum of 11 ,500 square feet. The new addition
will be used primarily to house hospital services such as
Laboratory, Pediatrics and Obstetrics. These services are
presently contained in areas of the building close to 80
years old and are beyond renovation. Non-direct patient
care services will be relocated in the areas vacated by
these services. The new construction will allow for greater
efficiency in these departments and the adoption of new
services and state-of-the-industry policies in Obstetrics
and Pediatrics demanded by the consumers. There are
numerous problems associated with operating these services
in such old structures such as inability to control climate
or properly ventilate these areas. Needless to say, this is
a very important project for the hospital and the community.