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Xenia council adopts zoning rules for freestanding emergency rooms, hospitals
Summary
The Xenia City Council voted May 8 to adopt Ordinance 2024-32, creating a new zoning category and site rules for freestanding emergency rooms and updating hospital and long-term care facility rules; the ordinance becomes effective in early June and will lift a moratorium on freestanding ER construction.
The Xenia City Council on May 8 adopted Ordinance 2024-32, amending the city's land development code to add a definition and siting conditions for freestanding emergency rooms, update rules for hospitals and for personal care and skilled nursing facilities, and add regulations for associated helipads. The council voted to untable the ordinance and then to approve it; the ordinance is expected to become effective in early June, after a 30-day waiting period.
City staff told the council the updates are intended to reflect changes in health care delivery and to set limits on where higher-traffic, higher-impact uses may locate. "[This] would do the following: establish a definition for freestanding ERs, regulate freestanding ERs as a conditional use in the B-3 and P-1 districts, require the principal building for freestanding ERs, hospitals, and personal care skilled nursing facilities be at least 250 feet from a residential district or property, require freestanding ERs and hospitals to provide direct access from a minor or major arterial roadway, [and] establish regulations for helipads," the city manager said during the council discussion.
The manager and other staff described Xenia as "an underserved market" for emergency and hospital services and said the ordinance does not prevent new providers from pursuing development; it imposes location and site-design conditions intended to reduce traffic and other community impacts. The manager also reminded council members that a moratorium on freestanding ER construction that the council adopted last November will expire automatically when the ordinance becomes effective.
Council members asked whether the ordinance would reduce health-care options. Councilman Reynolds asked, "So if we pass this, will we still have health care options for Xenia?" Staff replied that existing facilities such as Grama Memorial Hospital remain in operation and that the ordinance imposes conditions rather than prohibitions: "This doesn't preclude entities from pursuing development or construction of new ERs or hospitals. It just provide[s] some conditions on where those can go and then some conditions in terms of their site, upon development."
The ordinance was untabled and reintroduced by council motion before final consideration. The final votes on untabling and on adoption were recorded as affirmative; the presiding mayor announced the motion carried.
Council and staff noted that existing facilities that predate the new rules would be grandfathered in their current locations so long as they remain in continuous operation. Staff also said the city had placed a moratorium while it completed the zoning amendments; adoption of the ordinance will cause that moratorium to lapse per the moratorium's language.
The ordinance changes update several parts of the Xenia City Code, including tables and sections in Part 12 (Land Development Code), to add the new use category and related site requirements.
The council did not hold a new public hearing on May 8 because a public hearing had already been conducted during the ordinance's prior introduction and the ordinance had previously been tabled. The city manager said any decision made May 8 would become final after the standard waiting period.
The council recorded the ordinance adoption and moved on to other business.
