Northeast Georgia Plans New Hospital for Lumpkin

Business, Community, Health

Lumpkin, Ga- The Northeast Georgia Physicians group presented their planned unit development application for the new hospital in Lumpkin County to the County Commissioners Tuesday, July 6. The presentation gave information about the new hospital they are planning for Lumpkin and gave citizens an opportunity to voice their opinions.

The presentation was presented by Emily Bagwell an Attorney for Northeast, Melissa Tymchuk Chief Administrative of Staff, Steve Sanchez Landscape Architect with the HGOR company, and Randy Maxwell Architect from Perkins+Will. Director of Planning Bruce Georgia outlined the 18-month application process at the start of the meeting for the board members.

The pre-application was applied for in April, it was then submitted in May and also approved in May. The Planning Commission reviewed it in June and then two public hearing notices were put in the Dahlonega Nugget to allow citizens the chance to receive information and voice opinions about the hospital.

Current Site Plan Presented to the Commissioners

The hospital will sit on 53.72 acres of land with the possibility of future buildings being added on. The location for the project is Southside of Ga 400, 1800ft south of Ga 400/ Ga 60. They will place the hospital at the higher elevation on the site making it visible from Ga 400.

Parts of the land have been graded in the past however there is still a lot of natural untouched area that the landscapers have incorporated into the design. They also plan to use shrubbery to hide the parking lot from being visible from Ga 400.

The cite plan is at a 90-degree angle with 400 at the top of the page. The dark green areas are the existing trees and the light green are the new vegetation to be added. They plan to use all native vegetation in these areas.

Jeramy Nye for Lumpkin County Citizens Against Corp Ingrowment into Our County had a list of questions for the Northeast Staff.

“Annual cost increase to the taxpayers? Traffic increase? One Mitigation Methods since we are doubling to occupancy on 400 what is the plan for that? Defensive surrounding land values, how is a corporate conglomerate in the middle of 400 going to affect land values? Exspiable to Tri-Care patience, Military, do they have a coop with 5th Ranger training battalion as the las hospital did? Is it not true that Charity Care is federally reimbursable? Irrigation to the surrounding areas, the plane affect, so what creek does this have a direct effect on? What are the environmental effects of waste from this structure running into our local water systems? How is it going to affect the plane, is it going to causing flooding up or down the hill? Has DNR conducted a survey to determine the affected species for relocation of the environment? Do we know if there are any endangered species in there? Are they going to push substantial wildlife to other areas what are the correlating effects on that to personal property considering our large hog population?” questioned Nye.

Jeramy Nye asking questions.

There were no other citizens that made statements either for or against the hospital. Bagwell did the rebuttal for Northeast staff.

Emily Bagwell doing the rebuttal for Northeast Ga.

“Northeast Ga does not accept or require any direct funding from the counties that it has in its service area. As part of the process, we did a development regional impact study through Georgia Mountain Regional Development Corporation. Part of what the DRI looked at was traffic, environmental impacts, they said in their findings they did not see any problems here.” stated Bagwell.

“I’m happy with what I saw in this presentation, not only because we want to incorporate Northeast Georgia Hospital into our county, community, and area, but also because they took into consideration the elevation, the building height, the parking, the screening of the parking which was a big concern,” remarked Commissioner Jeff Moran District 4.

For more information about the application or the current plans for the hospital visit http://lumpkincountyga.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1499&Inline=True

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