Council rejects rezoning for second Tacoma psychiatric hospital, leaving its future unclear
The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected a rezoning ordinance necessary for the development of the city’s second psychiatric hospital.
The decision stood in contrast to the repeatedly stated need by city leaders for more inpatient behavioral health options in the area.
In the first reading of the ordinance on Sept. 17, the hearing examiner’s findings won approval with a simple voice vote from the full council, though operational safety questions as they related to the facility’s permit were posed during the consent agenda portion of that meeting.
Tuesday’s final reading of the ordinance did not go in favor of Signature Healthcare Services’ plan to build a 105-bed psychiatric hospital at 1915 S. Proctor St., on the south side of South 19th Street.
The location is owned by Tacoma Life Properties LLC, established by Soon K. Kim, CEO of Corona, California-based Signature.
In August, hearing examiner Jeff Capell recommended approval of the rezone and offered conditional approval of the project’s permits.
Options that were available to the council Tuesday were to follow the hearing examiner’s recommendation to approve the requested rezone, approve the rezone with conditions that differ from the hearing examiner’s recommendation or deny the rezone request outright.
Council member Keith Blocker, in whose district the proposal was to be built, took the lead in rejecting the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting.
Blocker said while he recognizes the need for additional psychiatric beds in the greater Tacoma area, it is not equitable to cluster those facilities in Tacoma’s 3rd District, especially when the issue affects all of Pierce County.
“I have huge concerns about placing and consolidating too many behavioral health centers in one location, and it comes off to me that when it comes to these kinds of services, the go-to is the City of Tacoma and with that the go-to is District 3,” Blocker said at the meeting. “... It’s not equitable.”
On Tuesday, Mayor Victoria Woodards quickly followed Blocker in support of his decision while also noting the severe shortage of psychiatric beds.
“Because we need mental health facilities doesn’t mean they all belong in District 3 nor do they all belong in the city of Tacoma,” Woodards said at the meeting. “Mental health is a crisis in the county and in this state. And so while I support the building of more mental health beds and will continue to support that and continue to advocate for that, I have to support council member Blocker in saying, ‘But not in District 3.’
“Most of the medical facilities in this city are in District 3.”
County Executive Bruce Dammeier and Pierce County Council Chairman Doug Richardson were unavailable for comment Wednesday, according to the Erin Babbo with the county Communications Department.
Following Woodards’ comments, a roll call of votes was taken, with each council member voting against the measure.
“The ordinance is declared failed,” the mayor announced.
The proposed hospital site is less than a mile west from Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital, which just recently attained its safety accreditation.
In addition to Wellfound and Signature, a third behavioral health care site is being redeveloped in the vicinity.
Site redevelopment plans were filed in July for Comprehensive Life Resources’ CLIP (Children’s Long Term Inpatient Program) facility to move from its longtime location on Pearl Street to another CLR building at 1201 S. Proctor. The move would allow CLR to roughly double the program’s space and offer about 27 inpatient beds as a locked facility after an initial launch of 13, with an estimated opening in May or June of next year.
The Proctor location previously was CLR’s home for foster care services, family advocacy, children’s counseling and administrative offices. CLR moved those services to its Tacoma Avenue site in June.
CLR’s CLIP in Tacoma is one of a handful of such sites in the state, providing “residential treatment to Washington State youth with significant psychiatric impairment,” serving patients up to age 17, according to the Pearl Street Center site, “with most youth staying six to 12 months.”
April Stallings, executive director of youth intensive services for CLR, told The News Tribune on Wednesday that the entity with its administrative offices and behavioral health services, has had a presence in the neighborhood for decades, and noted a letter about the transition was distributed to neighbors within a block of the site.
“We’ve been in that community for longer than many of the people who live there, and feel a stewardship and connection to the community,” she said. “We won’t have as many staff here as we did, not nearly the amount of traffic,” as it did in its previous operating capacity.
“I feel the impact is minimal to the community,” she added. “And it gives us more than triple the space in three smaller, more tailored units,” for those they treat.
“It’s a high priority for us to be good neighbors,” she said, adding that she plans community outreach before the opening after the building’s remodel.
She said the council’s Signature vote surprised her. “I hadn’t mingled the two projects in my mind,” she said. “Kids and adults are such separate considerations.”
As for Signature’s project, bringing the facility to the South 19th and South Proctor location has been an uphill battle. Signature is one of the largest privately held psychiatric hospital companies in the country, and it achieved a settlement in 2018 with the state Department of Health and the local health systems that run Wellfound (CHI Franciscan and MultiCare) allowing it to build at the site, after initially losing out to Wellfound on a Certificate of Need.
Tacoma Life Properties has the option to appeal Tuesday’s decision in Superior Court. It is unclear what next steps will be taken.
Representatives for Signature and the city did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
In a July letter to the city, Signature wrote: “Signature wishes to address that the Certificate of Need process has already evaluated the need in Pierce County and supports our I05-bed proposed hospital. Any concern over patients being transported from other counties into Pierce County is misplaced.
“In fact, that concern overlooks the very purpose for a Certificate of Need process in the first place —to ensure there is a need for each hospital in each local community. People who are in desperate need of substance use and behavioral health services are already in this Pierce County community. Adequately treating them makes the community safer.”
UPDATE, DEC. 20: In a brief emailed response to questions sent earlier this week from The News Tribune regarding what would be the next steps, a media representative for the city responded Friday that “Signature Health would determine how they will proceed with the project.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 1:48 PM.
