Oconomowoc may approve hospital deal

Plan could allow long-sought Aurora facility in Summit

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 15, 2006

By AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.com

Oconomowoc - A deal that would allow Aurora Health Care to build its long-sought hospital in western Waukesha County could win Common Council approval tonight, as aldermen look to end a five-year legal battle between the city and the health care giant.

A last-minute change issued late Monday afternoon to the council agenda for tonight indicates that a settlement of the lawsuit could result in the building of the $166 million, 88-bed hospital in the Town of Summit at a site that Aurora now prefers.

City officials declined to comment on the potential settlement, as did Aurora representatives.

"We just can't comment until things are wrapped up," Aurora spokesman Jeff Squire said.

Summit Chairman Len Susa also declined to comment Monday evening.

"It's not our settlement; it's between the city and Aurora," he said.

The issue of a new hospital in western Waukesha County has divided residents and the business community in southeastern Wisconsin since it was first proposed in 2001.

Health care costs are higher in the Milwaukee area than in many metropolitan areas of the United States, and many feared that an Aurora hospital to be built within a few miles of Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital would drive those costs even higher.

There has been speculation for weeks that under a settlement, Oconomowoc would use its expanded zoning powers granted under state law to change the land use and zoning designations for Aurora's preferred Summit site so a hospital could be built in the Summit portion of the sprawling Pabst Farms development. County government could not block that action.

Two late additions to the council agenda for tonight fuel that speculation: consideration and action on a memorandum of understanding among Oconomowoc, Summit, Pabst Farms and Aurora on pending litigation, and a resolution initiating city zoning powers in Summit.

Aurora turned its sights to the Summit site, at the southeast corner of the I-94/Highway 67 interchange, after Oconomowoc rezoned the first proposed site in the city so a hospital could not be built there.

Medical campus envisioned

Pabst Farms developer Peter Bell said he envisioned the new hospital as the centerpiece of a larger medical campus at the Summit site that would attract other medical offices and clinics. The Oconomowoc site that Aurora controls is now being sought for a major retail development.

Last year, despite an endorsement from the Summit Town Board, the County Board refused to approve land use and zoning changes needed for construction to proceed in Summit.

The County Board action prompted to Aurora to revive its dormant 2001 lawsuit against Oconomowoc over the city's '01 rezoning vote.

Negotiations toward a settlement of the lawsuit began in earnest in May, after a Waukesha County circuit judge declared that the council's rezoning vote was illegal. The zoning then reverted to its original classification, which would permit construction of a hospital.

Prospects for a settlement were strengthened in June, when a 1 million-square-foot mall that General Growth Properties Inc. planned at the northeast corner of I-94 and Highway 67 was announced for Pabst Farms. That 110-acre project would require the Aurora-controlled parcel where the health care system first proposed to build a hospital.