WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A campus expansion and renovation on the Southeast Side of Wausau has caused some concerns.
North Central Health Care is planning on building four new buildings on their campus to improve the quality of care for their patients. NCHC focuses on serving mental health care, addiction, and substance abuse treatment, developmental disabilities care, and skilled nursing care. The new additions would include a new skilled nursing tower, a new pool building, a new youth hospital, and a new adult CBRF hospital.
Neighbors in the area are concerned about the location of the new youth hospital and the adult CBRF hospital as they are currently planned to be built right off of Marshall Street. Southeast resident David Piehler says a lot of that concern is about losing the historical green space buffer between the campus and the neighborhood.
“The current plan calls for putting buildings in what has been in the buffer area. And putting them very visibly on Marshall Street. Which is a very different arrangement than has been historical fact.
NCHC CEO Michael Loy says North Central has heard the public concerns about the location of the two buildings and will be working to move them to a different location on the campus.
“Tonight we heard clearly, that as we did in the neighborhood meeting yesterday through our public engagement that the neighbors would like to see us move a part of the campus to a different location. So we’re going to go back and work on that. And then bring that modification back to the city for final approval later this spring.”
A secondary concern brought up by Piehler was the drastic expansion of parking for the facilities. Piehler says that signals there could mean more traffic in the area. “The number of parking spaces they have increasing 32%. The implications of that for traffic on the Southeast Side and the implications for their design layout, if they didn’t need all those parking spaces, they perhaps could reallocate space to buildings instead of parking.”
But Loy says traffic increases would be unlikely for the next few years for NCHC. “We’re going to maintain the integrity of what we’re doing and the population that we’re serving today. We’ll serve them in different ways and have different opportunities for them but by and large, the amount of people coming to our campus for North Central Health Care purposes shouldn’t really change too much over the term of the project.”
As Loy and NCHC are committed to looking at different locations for the youth and adult CBRF hospitals, Piehler says the neighborhood can only count on their word after the current campus layout was approved by the plan commission.
“I think they’re people of good faith. I think they may be constrained by recommendations from their consultant. Otherwise procedurally what the plan commission did was approve a general development plan with them in that place. So all we have is their word right now. We don’t have any leverage on them. But I think they’ll make good on their word.”
When asked if some of the issues with the expansion may be because of the nature of the facility, Loy feels that the NCHC and the neighborhood can exist together productively, despite the population they serve.
“The green space is something that is treasured by the neighborhood. They really appreciate having that park like setting. We take great pride in our campus and we want the community to come in. I think the population we serve does raise a little bit of an eyebrow. But we have a safe campus, we’ll continue to have a safer campus in the future. And I think we can mutually exist in a very productive environment.”
The plan commission passed the general development plan by a vote of 5-2. Mayor Robert Mielke and Public Works Director Eric Lindman were the two no votes, as they wanted to table the decision for another month to get more information about potentially moving the two buildings and issues with potential traffic increases.
Loy says NCHC will be holding community engagement sessions to hear from the community again before the precise implementation plan has to go to the plan commission for final approval. Those sessions will be held on the 1st and 2nd Thursday of April from 5:30 to 8 pm at the NCHC theatre.
