Council reviews Good Samaritan 20‑year master plan; EIS flags major traffic, sewer and radio‑coverage mitigation

Puyallup planning staff and MultiCare Health System representatives presented the Good Samaritan Hospital 20‑year master campus plan and the forthcoming final environmental impact statement (EIS) at the City Council study session on April 15, 2025.

Chris Beal, senior planner with the city’s Development and Permitting Services Department, said the master plan functions like a customized zoning district for MultiCare’s campus and is required under the city’s medical zoning rules (Title 20.88). MultiCare’s Tim Holmes and newly appointed Good Samaritan President Dawn Anaskevich joined the briefing to outline the hospital’s campus vision and community role.

Holmes told the council that in August 2023 the state approved 160 additional licensed beds for Good Samaritan to be located in a proposed Patient Care Tower, which the hospital expects to be the first major project under the master plan. The proposal also includes moving existing observation beds into the new tower and a shell floor that could be built out later. Beal said the campus plan covers four phases over a 20‑year horizon, with additional projects including two medical office buildings (up to 100,000 square feet each), a potential 90,000‑square‑foot central support tower, a 30,000‑square‑foot Dally Tower expansion and parking garage options.

The city and MultiCare described three principal EIS mitigation areas: traffic, sanitary sewer capacity, and emergency radio coverage. Beal said the EIS traffic analysis identified nearly 1,000 PM‑peak hour trips tied to full build‑out and that Fifteenth Avenue and South Meridian would require major mitigation. Proposed mitigation measures include widening Fifteenth Avenue to a four‑lane corridor, signalizing the Fifteenth/Fifth Avenue intersections (the existing roundabout would be signalized) and adding a second southbound left‑turn lane on Meridian. City staff warned the corridor work requires additional right‑of‑way and will face feasibility and cost constraints; staff said the widening and signalization measures are tied to later phases (beyond the initial Patient Care Tower) when medical office buildings and additional parking would increase traffic.

Sanitary sewer upgrades are already underway near the campus for current needs, but Beal said additional sewer main upgrades would likely be required for phase‑two and later development. On emergency communications, staff presented radio‑coverage modeling that showed the existing Dally Tower and proposed tower heights would create exterior radio‑frequency “shadow” areas. Beal said interior booster systems can mitigate indoor coverage but that exterior gaps require coordination with public safety communications specialists; the city has shared the RF analysis with Central Pierce and emergency managers.

Ambulance throughput at the hospital’s ER emerged as a focused operational concern. Beal described a phased ambulance‑bay strategy negotiated with Central Pierce Fire: an initial phase of reconfiguration to add queuing and remove conflicting police parking stalls, and a later phase that would add capacity using an area currently landscaped (to be vault‑filled) if a future Dally Tower expansion includes ER enlargement. City staff said Central Pierce supported the phased approach while recognizing ongoing service‑level concerns.

Holmes and Anaskevich emphasized local care capacity and workforce development. Holmes said more than half of inpatient users from East Pierce County seek care outside the community today and the hospital’s expansion intends to retain more care locally. Anaskevich said MultiCare wants to grow local training and hiring pipelines and praised existing partnerships with local colleges, including a recently established program with Pacific Lutheran University and connections to Washington State University’s medical education programs.

Beal said the planning commission has reviewed the plan and conducted a site visit; the city expects to issue a final EIS next month and return to council for a first reading and subsequent adoption, with a target for final adoption in June 2025. Council members asked about investment scale, jobs, and phasing; hospital staff said capital costs for the Patient Care Tower would be in the hundreds of millions and full build‑out would represent substantially larger investment that could reach into the high‑hundreds of millions, but they did not provide a single all‑phases dollar figure at the session.

Public comment at the end of the meeting included one speaker who urged the council to reconsider a separate crisis/DCR program connected to the hospital and police, and who described a personal negative experience; the council referred the comment for follow‑up.

Ending: City staff will issue the final EIS, return to council for ordinance readings and coordinate further with Central Pierce and MultiCare on traffic, sewer and emergency communications mitigation as the master plan moves toward possible adoption.