Southwest Washington Medical Center has spent seven years and nearly $17 million buying homes that line the north and east sides of its sprawling Vancouver campus.
Starting Dec. 26, those houses will go for a cross-town ride to a temporary site on the corner of Northeast 172nd Avenue and 28th Street.
The move, which eventually will relocate nearly 70 ranch-style abodes, paves the way for the hospital’s future expansion and a summer construction start on the Evergreen school district’s $23.7 million magnet Health and BioScience High School. The medical center, which this month solidified its merger with Bellevue-based PeaceHealth, does not have immediate plans to build on the cleared land, said Ken Cole, interim communications officer for Southwest Washington Health System.
The hospital expects to keep about 10 acres of the approximately 12-acre land acquisition. Future hospital development could include medical offices or parking, Cole said.
He said the homes would be gradually moved away from the hospital over the next three years. Most of the houses will be re-established and remodeled to be sold.
“Fifteen homes are being moved by Jan. 16, and another 20 (houses) in 2011 and another 20 (houses) in 2012. That would leave us with 10 or 12 houses to move” beyond 2012, Cole said. “The hospital is trying to do the right thing and recycle homes that are in good condition.”
Sites to be cleared include about 30 contiguous home lots on the east side of the hospital along Northeast 92nd, 93rd and 94th avenues from East Mill Plain Boulevard to Seventh Street. Another 40 lots with houses are situated just north of the medical center’s administrative office, on the west side of 92nd from Seventh Street north to Ninth Street.
Evergreen Public Schools this month paid around $3.5 million to purchase about 2 acres of the northern-most tract. The district expects to start construction on the three-story magnet high school in July or August, said Sue Steinbrenner, the district’s director of facilities.
“We’re looking at starting construction in time to open in the fall of 2013,” she said.
The four-year high school will offer advanced science and math courses and accommodate about 500 students who aspire to careers in specialized medical fields. School programs will partner with the medical center on student projects and apprenticeships, Steinbrenner said.
In early 2010, the district won $17.4 million in federal stimulus-backed construction bonds to build the school.
School traffic is the only concern for neighbors in the surrounding residential area, said Heather Waller, chairwoman of the 765-household North Garrison Heights neighborhood association.
“The neighbors that are living closest to it are the most concerned,” she said.
Steinbrenner said the school district plans to host public forums to hear from the neighbors.
“Students won’t be allowed to drive to the high school,” which will have about 100 parking spaces for visitors and staff, she said.
As for the medical center’s future expansion, Waller said neighbors have known for several years that the hospital was in the process of purchasing homes in the area.
She said the relationship between the medical center and neighbors is “tenuous. If they plan on moving a bunch of houses out in a short period of time, they have not notified us,” Waller said. “I hope that the people who were affected were able to make a good decision and didn’t feel pressured.”
Cole said the hospital started acquiring the 1950s- and 1960s-built homes in 2003.
“We let it be known in the neighborhood that we were interested in buying up properties within certain boundaries,” he said.
Three homes at a time will be moved each Sunday from Dec. 26 through mid-January, according to Steve Long, project manager for Homes Worth Keeping of Washington LLC, hired by the hospital to move and sell the houses.
Crews spent last week dismantling the sewer and gas, cable and electric lines on some of the homes, said Chris Arsenault, of Chris Arsenault Structural Movers. Several houses were hoisted onto flatbeds and stand ready for hauling.
Arsenault said moving day would start at around 4 a.m. to avoid traffic as the first three houses travel caravan-style about 70 blocks east on Mill Plain, then head north on 164th Avenue.
“We’ll be happy to be off the road by 8:30,” he said.
