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Hurricane council approves development agreement allowing 85-foot hospital height for Zion Regional Medical Center
Summary
The Hurricane City Council approved a development agreement that grants Zion Regional Medical Center an 85-foot height exception for a proposed hospital building; the agreement is limited to height and includes a five-year expiration for the height exception if no building permit is pulled.
The Hurricane City Council voted unanimously June 17 to approve a development agreement with Zion Regional Medical Center that allows an exception to local height limits so a proposed hospital building could reach 85 feet.
The agreement—approved as “option B” in staff packets—only grants an entitlement for increased building height and does not otherwise give site-plan approvals or other land-use entitlements, city staff told the council. City attorney Dayton explained the document is narrowly written so the only entitlement created is the increased height; other public facilities and land-use approvals will be addressed in later permitting steps.
Council and staff discussed safeguards. The council was shown a stepped height schedule with lower heights (55 and 70 feet) allowed in areas closer to property edges and the 85-foot maximum reserved for the hospital portion of the building. Staff also recommended shortening the term of the height exception: the version approved reduced the agreement’s duration from 10 years to five years, so the height exception will expire if no medical-building building permit is pulled within five years.
Staff and the mayor noted that public facilities—roads, transmission and a new substation referenced by the developer—will need to be brought in by the project and resolved before final land-use approvals. Dayton told the council the development agreement includes language that limits the entitlement to the increased height, and that building permits would not be issued unless required public facilities are in place.
Councilman Kevin Thomas made the motion to approve option B; it passed unanimously with a second from Councilman Hershey.
The action permits Zion Regional Medical Center to proceed with architectural design work that assumes the taller profile but does not change the city’s development-permit process or guarantee future building permits until infrastructure and other code requirements are met.
