Land-use decisions shaping future PO healthcare campuses

The Port Orchard City Council voted unanimously on Monday night to modify the land-use tables within the zoning code to allow office/patient clinics to be built within the Community Facilities zone, but only as part of an exisiting medical treatment facility.

Following the swift decision, the council spent close to an hour reviewing and debating what some said was a minor modification to the South Kitsap Health Care Campus Master Plan.

The request to modify the master plan came from Peninsula Community Health Services, a company planning to build a healthcare clinic on 29,700 acres of the Harrison Healthcare Campus on South Kitsap Boulevard between Tremont and Pottery.

The requested modifications center on setback requirements, the applicant requesting permission to follow the City of Port Orchard’s 15-foot requirement and not the 30-foot setback required by the master plan.

Barbara Malich, CEO of Peninsula Community Health Services, addressed the Council during the public hearing related to the request.

“This has been long in planning, long in design and we’re very excited,” Malich said. “We want to invest in the City of Port Orchard by buying a permanent building.”

After discussion, the council voted 6-1 to allow the modifications, with Councilmember Rita DiIenno voting to deny.

Other council Actions:

-- The council voted unanimously to allow Port Orchard Mayor Kim Abel to sign an ATM agreement with two seperate credit card companies that would allow customers to pay certain bills through an ATM or over the phone.

-- The council voted unanimously to authorize the mayor to sign the Conolidated Fuel Services, Inc., customer service agreement.

-- The council voted unanimously to confirm Joanne Long-Woods as the city’s new planning director, with a starting salary of between $55,000 and $75,000. Long-Woods will start Sept. 22.

-- The council voted unanimously to award Signal Electric, Inc., the bid for the Tremont/ Sidney traffic signal.

The bid came in at a little more than $17,500.

-- The council voted unanimously to approve ordinance No. 1951 Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP).

-- The council unanimously approved the mayor’s recommendation of appointment of Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Mem-bers with the resolution to extend the deadline for this year’s findings to Oct. 1.

-- The council voted unanimously to put an ordinance requiring citizens to where bike helmets while riding on the Sept. 27 agenda.

-- The council voted 6-1, with Councilmember Ron Rider in dissent, to a resolution to place an advisory vote to ban fireworks in Kitsap County on the November ballot.

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