Medical Clinic Houston / Methodist Hospital Updates
METHODIST HOSPITAL MOVES TO SOUTHAMPTON (05/24/2007)
Dear Neighbors,
We Need Your Help.
Your letters are needed to oppose construction of a new 6-story medical office building and 7-story parking garage at Sunset, Cherokee and Rice Blvd. To help you understand the magnitude of this project, please see the photo showing the proposed new Clinic building as compared to nearby residences as posted on our website.
Two Huge Buildings.
The new Clinic building will be 88 ft. tall, more than four times the height of the existing Medical Clinic building, with 130,000 sq. ft. of space, plus a 600 space parking structure. Methodist Hospital will lease the 6th floor of the new Clinic for ancillary services, such as rehabilitation therapy, weight loss and wellness programs, nutrition and diet classes, smoking cessation clinics, sleep study clinic, overnight recovery facilities and the like. We are told they also plan to take over the current building for specialized medical services, administrative offices and storage. Construction is slated to begin in June 2007.
This proposed complex is almost 80 percent as large as the immense Kelsey-Seybold main campus on Holcombe. The 600 place garage is exactly the same size. When the old MCH building is replaced by a second, matching clinic building (an obvious growth option) the MCH complex will precisely equal the size of Kelsey-Seybold. However--Kelsey’s Holcombe campus occupies a site many times larger, and it is situated on a multilane major thoroughfare, not a quiet residential street.
The Clinic Has Not Responded to Our Concerns.
Southampton and BOCA are working together on this and have for the past five months been asking questions and voicing our concerns about the scale, noise, intensity of use, traffic and safety impact, the lighted parking garage, visual blight, etc., associated with this project. Our pleas and letters to the Clinic and to Methodist Hospital have fallen on deaf ears. The Clinic has not made any concessions or changes to its plans, and Clinic officials have done nothing to allay our fears.
Massive Scale.
The Clinic maintains that they are not expanding their business, but simply “right-sizing” their existing clinic, and that it will not harm the neighborhood. However, the scale of this project, coupled with Methodist Hospital’s involvement, suggests a substantial expansion, resulting in a large medical complex amidst our homes, which will indeed harm the look, character and quality of life of our unique neighborhood. Further, Methodist Hospital’s power of eminent domain carries the potential for further expansion in our neighborhood. Deed restrictions are canceled when property is taken through condemnation.
We need a large-scale outpouring of opposition now to encourage the Clinic to change its plans.
Please write a letter of opposition today and email it to us, or simply copy and paste the sample “go-by” letter (found at the end of this email) into a new email to us and fill in your name, address and the date, and then email it back to us. We will deliver your letters to Clinic doctors and Methodist Hospital Board members next week. If you prefer to write a letter on your stationary, just call 713-523-SHCC (7422) and we’ll be happy to come pick it up for inclusion in the package.
A sample letter is provided , but some key concerns are:
- A building and parking facility of this size belongs on a major thoroughfare, not in a quiet residential neighborhood.
- This project and those that follow, will compromise traffic and pedestrian convenience and safety, and impact both the quality of life so special in our historic neighborhood and our property values.
- The Clinic needs to keep its word and right-size its operation, not bankroll its expansion with a cushy hospital lease. Four stories max!
- Cut parking garage in half, down to 300 spaces, and provide attractive design and screening like quality parking facilities constructed in recent years on Fannin and Main in the Texas Medical Center.
- Delivery and services facilities need to be away from residences.
- With the existing clinic and the 6th floor of the proposed new clinic, Methodist Hospital will occupy 66,500 sq ft. of space—approximately 40% of this clinic complex! This may be only the beginning.
- We need assurance that neither Methodist Hospital nor any subsequent occupant of the clinic will ever exercise its eminent domain rights at this location, in perpetuity.
Please make your opposition to this large-scale medical complex known by writing today. Again, you can use the sample letter below or feel free to write one of your own.
Board votes to oppose Medical Clinic of Houston Development (2/15/07)
The Southampton Civic Club board voted on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 to oppose construction of a new additional Medical Clinic of Houston (MCH) building. The board also voted to attempt to engage the assistance of the Houston City Council in opposition to this project.
In case you are unaware, MCH plans to build a new six story, 130,000 sq. ft. clinic, with an adjacent 600 car parking garage, on the lot at the corner of Sunset, Cherokee, and Rice. Construction is slated to begin in June 2007. MCH claims that this facility is not intended to expand the business, and that the neighborhood will not be harmed. However, MCH will not share its architectural elevations or plans for the project. Additionally, MCH turned down our invitation to appear at Tuesday’s board meeting: we are told it will meet with no more than a few residents at a time.
The quality of life of our unique neighborhood is at stake, raising issues of intensity of use, noise, traffic and safety impact, scale, and visual blight. Until MCH answers our questions and allays our fears, we ask our public officials to help us oppose this project.
We also need your help to voice the concerns of our neighborhood to the Medical Clinic of Houston and its affiliate, Methodist Hospital, to Council Member Anne Clutterbuck, and to the At-Large Members of the Houston City Council.
We encourage you to make your views known by sending messages to:
- Medical Clinic of Houston: buildingquestions@mchllp.com.
- Houston City Council: 900 Bagby, 1st Floor, Houston, TX 77002
Anne Clutterbuck districtc@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2004 FAX: 713.437.6901 Peter Brown atlarge1@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2014 FAX: 713.247.3519 Sue Lovell atlarge2@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2013 FAX: 713.247.2580 Ronald Green atlarge4@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2012 FAX: 713.247.1424 Michael Berry atlarge5@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2006 FAX: 713.247.2998 Ada Edwards districtd@cityofhouston.net Phone: 713.247.2001 FAX: 713.247.2196 - Methodist Hospital
Dr. Richard J. Robbins, Chairman
Methodist Hospital/Dept. of Medicine
6550 Fannin, Suite 1661A
Houston, TX 77030
713.441.6262
rrobbins@tmh.tmc.eduDr. Mark Boom, Executive Vice President and COO
Methodist Hospital
Dunn Tower
6565 Fannin, Suite 200
Houston, TX 77030
713.441.2750
mboom@tmh.tmc.edu - Methodist Hospital Board of Directors.
Medical Clinic develpement subject of 2/13/07 board meeting
In January, community representatives, including two members of the Southampton Civic Club, attended a meeting at the offices of the Medical Clinic of Houston, to learn about the Clinic’s plans to construct a new 6-story medical building at 1701 Sunset Blvd., at the intersection of Sunset and Cherokee, and an adjacent 7-story parking garage at Rice Blvd. and Cherokee. We have been told that construction is slated to begin this summer.
A site plan and construction schedule are posted at on the Medical Clinic Houston Website.
The Southampton Civic Club Board will consider this matter, along with other regular business, at its meeting on Tuesday evening, 7 p.m., February 13, 2007 at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Blvd. We have invited the Clinic to present the project to the neighborhood, and hope it will accept our invitation. The Board may also decide on a formal course of action at that meeting.