Lyon County Commissioners have passed a series of zoning code text amendments that will provide additional oversight to the future of medical facility development in the rural areas of the county.
That is the broad view of the amendments originally considered and recommended for approval by county planning commissioners last week according to Lyon County Zoning and Floodplain Administrator Sam Seeley.
County Commissioners approved the changes unanimously during their regular action session with members of Newman Regional Health leadership in attendance. If you recall, a year ago Newman proposed a series of zoning code text changes to the city of Emporia to stall or outright block Stormont Vail Health from bringing a multi-million dollar medical facility to the community.
Those requests ultimately went nowhere, however, following Thursday’s action KVOE News spoke with Newman CEO Cathy Pimple and asked if the amendments approved Thursday were the same proposed to the city last year. Pimple says they were not identical but had the same “bones” as the city recommendations.
Pimple would also note that Newman is not opposed to growth within the county, however, they feel any growth needs to have an appropriate amount of oversight and disclosure.
Lyon County Commission Chairman Rollie Martin has noted the zoning text changes were not directed at stopping Stormont Vail from entering the county but says that process did ultimately lead to Thursday’s action as it revealed a missing piece in the county’s zoning regulations, namely that it had no definitions for medical facilities including in said regulations
In an email to KVOE News, Stormont Vice President of Marketing & Communications Anita Fry says it’s not the time to “be invoking restrictive zoning ordinances” after Stormont bought property at Roads 180 and G this past spring and successfully asked Emporia city commissioners to annex the property last month. Fry says the $44 million facility being proposed will offer a state-of-the-art clinic for Stormont staff while providing jobs and economic development at a time when the local economy is resetting after the closure announcements of Holiday Resort and Tyson earlier this month, adding the care it provides could attract new businesses to the area.
With the city annexing the property out of the county, a major question now is whether or not Thursday’s amendments will affect the property at Roads 180 and G. If the property is rezoned to fall under city zoning regulations, as it has been indicated it may, the property would fall under city zoning jurisdiction and not the county.
Earlier this year county commissioners approved a moratorium that suspended all applications related to zoning, land use, and building permitting for medical facilities. This was done to allow time to develop the above-mentioned zoning code amendments.
With said amendments now approved and in place, commissioners will allow the moratorium to sunset at the end of the month with applications again being accepted starting at that time.
