Proposed projects would serve Clark County hospitals

“The purpose of the rezone is to enable it to be used as parking for PeaceHealth and other overflow parking,” Ginn said. Because of its past use, he said, the tract can be used for little else.

A variety of tests have between done on the former landfill site, located between Northeast 82nd and 87th avenues and Fifth and Seventh streets, said Bryan Snodgrass, a principal planner with the Vancouver Community and Economic Development Department. “It would involve more complex and expensive engineering and construction to build on that site,” he said.

Ginn said plans call or between 350 and 370 parking stalls and landscaping. Developers would consider either selling the lot or leasing it out, he said.

Meanwhile, the project to the north, the planned 139th Street Medical Plaza ,is proposed for a site on the west side of Interstates 5 and 205. But the location will someday sit on a major thoroughfare connected to Legacy’s Salmon Creek hospital, which fronts 139th Street on the east side of the freeways.

That’s because construction is set to start soon on the next, $43 million phase of the Salmon Creek Interchange, a $133 million project that includes a 139th Street bridge over the two interstates, according to Heidi Sause, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The plaza’s scheduled completion date is the end of 2014, Sause said.

The east-west interchange will carry drivers over the freeways as part of a plan to relieve congestion and gridlock on Northeast 134th Street, the area’s other major east-west route.