At its December meeting, the Laramie Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit (CEP-25-0014) allowing the Albany County Hospital District to build a commercial parking lot and a single-story vehicle storage garage at 3315 Joanna Bruner Street.

Staff presented the application and recommended approval, saying the parcel (about 1 acre) is zoned B-2 Business and is immediately east of the hospital campus. The proposal includes a 38-space parking lot intended for hospital staff and a roughly 4,200-square-foot, ~17-foot-tall vehicle storage building to house ambulances and other hospital-owned vehicles. The site plan shows 36 standard parking spaces and 2 ADA spaces, shared access via Joanna Bruner Street, buffer landscaping between 6 and more than 30 feet, limited exterior lighting to meet city photometric standards and no new signage.

Tristan Cordier, agent for the applicant, told the commission the facility is intended for storage and minor on-site tasks (wash bay, small maintenance) but not for major mechanical work or housing ambulances that are actively in-service. Doug Voss, CEO of the hospital, said ambulances stored at the facility are intended for interfacility transfers rather than primary 911 response; they are licensed and equipped to respond in extraordinary circumstances but are primarily transfer vehicles. "They're not for 911 service," Voss said, and added the vehicles will be kept inside a locked building and maintained at appropriate temperatures.

Commissioners asked about operational routes and whether additional traffic control would be needed when vehicles exit; staff and the applicant said the city has not identified a need for a new crew-controlled signal and that ambulances will typically move through the ambulance bay at the hospital. Commissioners also clarified a standard staff condition requiring the applicant to submit building permit applications within six months of approval (the condition does not require the site be completed within six months).

A commissioner moved to approve the CUP "based on findings of fact, inclusions of law, and subject to all staff's recommended conditions." The motion was seconded and passed in a roll-call vote recorded as 4 yes, 0 no, 2 absent (Pacino and Aiza/Heiser White absent), and 1 vacancy. The chair announced that the motion carries.

The approval includes staff-recommended conditions and a site-plan Type 3 review process that allows staff to address minor outstanding technical corrections without returning to the commission for a new CUP.