By Steven Goode
The Middletown Press
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — The planning and zoning commission Wednesday unanimously approved an application by Middlesex Hospital to demolish two structures in advance of constructing a new storage facility to house the caregiver’s expanding fleet of ambulances.
The plan calls for the hospital to demolish two structures located at 4 and 8 Crescent St. and 80 South Main St. In their place the hospital would build a 6,710 square-foot building to house up to a dozen hospital ambulances between calls.
According to city documents related to the proposal, the hospital has increased its fleet of ambulances from 1 to 12. The facility is needed because the vehicles need to be housed in a climate-controlled environment between calls, officials said.
In March, members of the city’s design review and preservation board expressed reservations about the hospital’s plan. Their concerns included the demolition of two historic building and the possibility of more being taken down in the future. They also did not like the proposed design of the facility and asked if the hospital couldn’t build a parking garage instead or find a more suitable site.
At the time, officials said that the hospital had tried to find other sites without success and added that the hospital could not afford to build a parking garage.
Since then, the hospital’s plans have been revised to make the facility fit better into the neighborhood around it.
The revised plan went before the design review and preservation board again Wednesday prior to the planning and zoning commission meeting.
Asked if the revised plan would lead to an approval by the board before it went before the planning and zoning commission, Middletown Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski said that was the usual procedure.
The preservation review board approved the applicant’s redesign, leading to a presentation to the planning and zoning commission.
At that presentation, the applicant’s attorney Richard Carella said the old buildings were not useful to the hospital because they were in poor condition and not handicapped accessible.
“The hospital desperately needs this,” Carella said.
Architect Steve Doherty of Glastonbury-based S/L/A/M Collaborative said the redesign elements were consistent with homes in the South Green Historic District.
Middlesex Hospital Vice President of Operations David Giuffrida declined to comment Wednesday.
Commission member Sebastian Giuliano said that once the preservation review board made its decision there was little his body could do. But he added that the commission should do everything in its power to help the hospital succeed.
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