Coaldale approves St. Luke’s building

St. Luke’s Miners Campus wants to create more space for medical services.

In order to do so, they plan to move their human resources department to a house located across the street from the hospital in Coaldale.

On Thursday, the Coaldale Borough Zoning Hearing Board approved a variance allowing the hospital to use 304 W. Philips St., which is zoned R-1 residential, as administrative offices.

The hearing board voted unanimously, but imposed three conditions. The building can only be used as administrative offices; they must use the existing building (unless it is lost to fire or another disaster) and if St. Luke’s sells the property, it returns to residential use only.

Micah Gursky, director of Business Development and Physician Relations for St. Luke’s Miners Campus, said the hospital needs more space as it renovates medical units.

“Any time we renovate those rooms, we have to bring those up to current hospital standards. It requires more space,” he said.

Rather than locating those medical services off-site, it makes more sense to relocate the administrative functions.

“The more administrative offices we can take out of the main hospital building, the more space we have for cardiology, oncology, GI and other clinical functions,” Gursky said.

Gursky said the hospital already made space on the first floor for its cardiology unit after moving offices to another part of the hospital.

The hospital is currently in the process of expanding its emergency department, which is also located on the first floor.

The new building will have three to four employees. By comparison, the hospital building currently has 327.

It would be used Monday through Friday during business hours. New job applicants would make up most of the foot traffic in and out of the building.

At 1,950 square feet, the building would require seven off-street parking spaces, either on the property or within 400 feet if it were located in a commercial district. While the house itself only has two spaces, there is a parking lot just across Philips Street with 21 spaces, Gursky said, as well as 43 on-street spaces located along Philips.

Residents had several questions about the impact of the variance. Robert Demyanovich asked how much tax revenue would be lost if St. Luke’s seeks tax exempt status for the building.

Stephen Teeno, who lives adjacent to the property, asked if they would be adding lighting to the building. St. Luke’s officials said the layout of the property hadn’t yet been finalized.

Gursky said the hospital plans to invest in the property, updating faded siding and taking down a covered porch which appears to be falling down.

“It’s really nice to have a small community hospital and one that really cares about the property. We’ve made a lot of improvements in Coaldale as well as the other off-site properties,” he said.