This image from Google Maps shows the Spring Street side of the Griffin Hospital campus in Derby.
DERBY – A majority of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission voted April 15 to continue a public hearing on a plan by Griffin Hospital to replace a mobile MRI unit on Spring Street with a permanent modular building.
Commissioner Raymond Sadlik was concerned the site plan from the hospital had not been checked by the Derby Fire Marshal’s office. Right now the fire marshal position is vacant in Derby, but there are deputy fire marshals in the office.
Members of the commission will take up the hospital’s plans at the next planning and zoning meeting, scheduled for May 20. The commission must make a decision on that date, according to Derby Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Gino DiGiovanni, Jr.
A public hearing on the plan was held April 15. No one from the general public spoke, but Derby officials had concerns, especially about parking.
Currently Griffin Hospital houses an MRI machine in a portable trailer on the Spring Street side of the hospital campus, near loading docks.
Hospital officials want to replace the trailer with a custom-built modular building that will attach directly to the hospital.
In a letter on file in Derby City Hall, hospital officials said a new MRI unit within a modular building will better serve patients.
As it stands, people with certain medical conditions – such as cardiac patients with pacemakers – can’t use the current MRI. That would change with the new MRI.
In addition, accessing the current MRI isn’t convenient for patients, who have to use a semi-private area to change before walking into the trailer – which also has issues with cold drafts seeping in.
“The space within the newly built structure will create a far better patient experience,” according to the letter.“The fixed, permanent space will be a 1,500-square-foot suite that includes a private changing area adjacent to the MRI unit.”
At the April 15 meeting, Griffin Hospital President and CEO Patrick Charmel said officials have wanted to replace the trailer for decades.
The trailer is narrow, so it’s a tight fit for staff and patients, Charmel said.
Currently, about eight to 10 people a day use the MRI trailer, or about 2,000 patients annually, hospital officials told the commission. Those averages are not expected to increase with the new MRI building, but the service will be better, Charmel said.
The new MRI section of the hospital won’t be accessible from Spring Street, so there won’t be an increase of vehicles on the road.
The modular building will look better, too, Charmel said.
It’s being manufactured by a company that builds modular buildings specifically for MRI machines, hospital officials said. The modular building will blend nicely into the hospital campus, they said.
“There is a lot of attention to detail. It will look very attractive,” Charmel said.
The modular building is a better option than a traditional brick and mortar expansion of the hospital because the modular building can be up and running much quicker, hospital officials said.
The existing MRI trailer would be temporarily relocated near the emergency department while the modular building is affixed.
Commissioner David Kopjanski noted that the project will result in the loss of about five off-street parking spaces, which wasn’t noted on the hospital’s site plans. Kopjanski noted the spots are currently marked with signs. He asked where those five spaces would be relocated.
Kopjanski’s observation triggered a lengthy back-and-forth between the commission, Charmel and Dominick Thomas, the lawyer representing the hospital in front of the commission.
Thomas noted the spaces aren’t public parking spaces. Kopjanski, a former Derby building inspector, said the city’s zoning rules do not differentiate.
Charmel indicated the parking spaces aren’t officially designated as staff parking spaces. Employees from the engineering department have been using the spaces for Griffin Hospital vehicles, but not all the time. They will be directed to park in other nearby spots owned by the hospital.
There was also a technical debate over how many parking spaces the hospital is required to have, and whether the number of spaces is based on bed and patient counts or the square footage of the building.
Derby City and Town Clerk Marc Garofalo noted that parking, in general, is a concern in the area around the hospital.
Griffin Hospital, through expansions over the years, is encroaching on the residential neighborhoods that surround the campus. Those roads are often used by staff and patients, Garofalo said.
Garofalo said the city and the hospital have to address the problem at some point.
Hospital officials said they purchased the former Birmingham Health Center on Chatfield Street for additional parking. Shuttle service gets employees to and from Chatfield Street. The hospital also provides valet parking service.
Regarding the fire marshal’s review, Thomas said the marshal could review the plan later in the process, when a building permit is being considered.
However, the commissioners pointed out the fire marshal and other city staffers routinely review site plans early in the approval process, and that it is the applicant’s responsibility to get copies of site plans to city staffers.
Thomas said he had dropped off at least six copies of the hospital’s plans to the city’s planning and zoning department, where the fire marshal’s office is based. He said he dropped off the plan through a customer service window on the first floor of Derby City Hall, and that he has never personally delivered site plans to the fire marshal or to the police department, where the traffic authority also looks at site plans.
