Geisinger proposes 75-foot clinical building at GCMC, neighbors press for enforceable height and community benefits limits

Geisinger representatives told Scranton city officials and neighbors that the health system needs to expand clinical capacity after an apparent shift in local health-care providers and rising emergency-department volumes. The proposal centers on a clinical building up to 75 feet tall on the 400 block of Colfax, associated parking and interior clinical space to add inpatient beds, procedural capacity and a NICU.

The presentation described a roughly $50,000,000 investment "within the walls of GCMC and in some other property that we own," intended to expand emergency-room space, inpatient beds, imaging and medical transport. A Geisinger representative said the system is "out of capacity within the 4 walls of the hospital proper" and that "there is no intention to build to a 100 feet." The proposal would place the new clinical building and a parking garage on the 400 block of Colfax; Geisinger staff estimated the new garage would add roughly 400 spaces to a campus that now has…