Hey HCMC, Why Not Build a Clinic in Hopkins?

While neighboring Minnetonka begins debating whether it wants a new clinic at Shady Oak Road and Excelsior, Hopkins officials are trying to entice Hennepin County Medical Center to build the facility in their downtown.

“We have some thoughts that downtown Hopkins is an awesome place for the HCMC clinic,” said Kersten Elverum, the city’s director of economic development and planning.

Hennepin Health Services, a part of Hennepin County Medical Center, wants to build “Shady Oak Medical Facility” at 11525 Excelsior Boulevard—at the southeast corner of the Shady Oak Road/Excelsior Boulevard intersection and close to a future light rail station.

While the project faces additional hurdles in Minnetonka because of its proximity to a planned Southwest Light Rail station, Hopkins envisions the clinic as part of partnership that could aid the downtown’s continuing revitalization.

Officials here want to build a new parking ramp on the old Snyder Drug property at 15 Ninth Ave. N. The city has grants to acquire the property, but actually building the ramp will cost millions more.

A clinic in the downtown could offset some of the city's cost. Under that plan, HCMC and the city would both benefit by doing a joint development on the site and sharing the parking ramp, Elverum said.

Changing demographics

HCMC wants to build a clinic in the Hopkins and Minnetonka area in part because it decided not to build a clinic at Interstate 394 and Hopkins Crossroad.

It also anticipates increasing demand in an area that’s seen the departure of two clinics—the 2009 closure of the Park Nicollet clinic in downtown Hopkins and the relocation of Park Nicollet’s Minnetonka clinic to Shorewood.

Although overall population in the area should stay pretty level, the number of residents older than 55 is expected to grow significantly by 2017, according to a June presentation. HCMC expects a 14.7 percent growth in the 55- to 64-year-old age group between 2012 and 2017 and a 13.4 percent growth in the 65-and-older age group.

In all, the health care network expects the service area to need 11 more primary care providers and 40 more specialty care providers by 2018.

Consequently, the organization wants to build a facility in the existing 22,000-square-foot building on 11525 Excelsior Boulevard. The new facility would have a 10,000-square-foot emergency department and a 12,000-square-foot outpatient clinic. The emergency department would be a level III trauma center that would provide care for heart attacks, strokes, fractures and similar emergencies, in addition to having ambulances on standby for transport to centers with higher levels of care. It would provide emergency care to patients regardless of their ability to pay.

The outpatient clinic would provide primary and specialty care, as well as lab, radiology and pharmacy services.

Vision for Shady Oak

Elverum said planning for the area around the Shady Oak Station, which is expected to be just south of 17th Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard in Hopkins, is not yet far enough along to determine whether a clinic is the best fit for the neighborhood—although some aspects suggest it might not be optimal. Re-using a one-story building, for example, doesn’t achieve the ideal density, she noted.

But: “I don’t think it’s an incompatible use,” she said. “Certainly people will use transit to go to the clinic and see doctors.”

Yet the decision will ultimately come down to whether officials in Minnetonka, not Hopkins, think the clinic is a good fit for the area.

Medical clinics are allowed on the Excelsior Boulevard site under Minnetonka’s existing zoning ordinances, but rules to make the area compatible with the incoming Southwest Light Rail Transit project limit redevelopment that is not considered “transit friendly.”

These new rules curtail typical suburban development by restricting approval of rezoning, variances and conditional use permits and by limiting building investments to 50 percent of the current improvement value. Both types of restrictions would block the new clinic.

Minnetonka could instead use an interim use permit process. That process is normally reserved for seasonal or event-based exemptions but suitable here since clinics are allowed as a conditional use under the underlying zoning rules. 

The Minnetonka Planning Commission will consider whether the project is a good fit for the site at its meeting Thursday, and the City Council should consider the issue Aug. 5. Residents will be able to offer their input at both meetings.

The developer will then decide whether to file a formal application with Minnetonka. If that happens, the city will notify nearby property owners and host a neighborhood meeting. The Planning Commission will then review the formal plans, and the City Council will take action on the request.