Aurora hospital takes first steps

Oconomowoc Focus, February 23, 2007

Gabe Wollenburg, staff writer

Town of Summit - The Town of Summit Plan Commission voted to recommend the construction of a hospital in the town's portion of the Pabst Farms Thursday.

The hospital, pitched by Aurora Healthcare, is expected to gain the approval of the Town Board when it meets on the matter on March 1.

"We were pleased with the Plan Commission's unanimous vote to endorse our project, and we now look forward to a decision by the Town Board. Our physicians and staff are excited about getting started with construction," said David Ulery, pediatrician and president of Aurora Wilkinson Clinic.

The proposal itself, a substantial collection of storm- water, lighting, and construction documents, outlines the plans for the entire medical center expected to incorporate a 593,000-square-foot hospital and a 180,000-square-foot medical office building.

The office building will be the new home for the physicians and staff of Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic.

The proposal is not substantially different than the package first pitched in January, said Town Planner Henry Elling.

Elling noted there were some revisions to the green space and parking plans, and a few minor changes, but, for the most part, the hospital proposal remains unchanged from the one released earlier this year.

The hospital will have 110 patient rooms, all of them private and each with a full bathroom. The patient rooms are expected to feature home-like furnishings, individual temperature controls, warm colors and natural wood trim.

The Aurora Medical Center also will feature soft, indirect lighting, family lounges, resource libraries, nurse stations designed to encourage interaction between patients and caregivers, and an easy-to-navigate floor plan that promotes privacy by separating patient hallways from those used by the public.

The medical center will be built at the southeast corner of I-94 and Highway 67. It will occupy part of a 156-acre triangle of land in the Town of Summit that the Pabst Farms developers have designated for health-care related development.

The 53-acre hospital campus will feature extensive landscaping and include a "healing garden," providing a tranquil retreat for patients, family members and staff. A paved walking path will ring the campus.

Currently, preconstruction- site grading and erosion control is going on at the site. That work is being done under a permit issued to Pabst Farms that will pave the way for the relocation of the retention pond on the parcel.

When construction on the hospital proper beings, Elling said, Aurora will be issued their own permit.

Initial zoning to allow the construction was a hard-fought battle for Aurora. The hospital was originally rejected by the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors, but the City of Oconomowoc, which, unlike the Town of Summit, does not have County Board oversight, agreed to zone the property via extraterritorial zoning rules to allow the hospital's construction to move forward.

The city's maneuver was made possible via the "memorandum of understanding" between the city and the town, which, among other things, traded the institutional zoning for cessation of legal action against the city on Aurora's part and made the township's borders with the city permanent.