Downtown panel recommends amending code to permit hospitals under conditions

Downtown Action Committee members voted March 12 to recommend approval of a text amendment to the Downtown Master Plan (DMP) that adds a defined hospital use and updates the citywide zoning definition to reference Agency for Healthcare Administration licensing.

The amendment, filed as code revision case 25-02 by attorney Roger Ramdeen of Schutz & Bowen, would list hospitals as a permitted use in the urban core and special district planning areas and attach site standards including minimum lot size, separation from residences and parking location requirements.

The committee’s recommendation matters because the current DMP code does not explicitly list a hospital use; when the DMP is silent the city’s general zoning and land development regulations (CLDR) govern. That silence previously led staff to treat hospital-scale proposals as office use for zoning confirmation, prompting the applicant’s request for explicit language and licensing clarification.

Ramdeen, presenting the request, summarized the proposed definition read into…