Aurora completes approval process for town of Summit hospital
Waukesha Freeman, March 2, 2007
By JODY L. MAYERS
Freeman Staff
TOWN OF SUMMIT Congratulations and pats on the back ruled the
night as members of the town of Summit board gathered one last time
Thursday to hear a presentation from Aurora Health Care officials
an evening that culminated with final approval for Auroras
long-discussed $189 million Pabst Farms hospital plans.
I think the bar has just been raised for future development in
the town of Summit, Len Susa, town chairman, said.
The town board also unveiled an agreement in which the town will
receive a payment from Aurora of $1.5 million when a building permit
is issued for the project with some of that money to be allocated
for the construction of a new fire station. Another $1.2 million
will be received when Aurora receives its occupancy permit.
Also, the town will receive $100,000 a year in annual payments
from Aurora for the right to build the hospital, officials said.
The development, to be located southeast of Interstate 94 and
Highway 67, includes a 593,000-square-foot, 110-bed hospital and
180,000-square-foot medical office building and clinic. If plans
continue to move forward, construction could begin as early as
spring for an expected completion date of 2009.
Possible alternate sources of lighting, further clarification of
the physical building and further architectural and landscape plans
and are all issues that still need ironing out, but they will not
necessarily require further board approval prior to the issuance of
a building permit, Town Manger and Planner Henry Elling said.
Susa said the fact that the plan commission worked so hard to
raise issues and resolve them before the plans fell into the hands
of board members was beneficial.
I think the plan commission did an excellent job and I commend
them for their work, he said.
Because the site is in the extraterritorial zone for Oconomowoc,
the ordinance passed Thursday required approval from both the town
of Summit board and its plan commission. The latter approved it
during a meeting Feb. 15.
We worked hard to respond to their concerns and provided the
right materials to demonstrate the work that was being done on our
end, said Mike Scholl, vice president of Hammes Corp., a real
estate development firm Aurora is using for the project.
Im very pleased with how things went tonight, Scholl said.
Each of the dozens of conditions, including a development plan,
needed to be satisfied before Aurora could seek a building permit.
Other issues included zoning limits, landscape and architectural
design and lighting, traffic, storm water and grading plans.
Scholl said Aurora still needs approval from Waukesha County for
storm water and grading plans and state plan approval.
We look forward to Aurora being a fantastic corporate citizen,
neighbor and resident, Susa said.
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