Munson Eyes Significant Future Expansion

With the recent opening of Munson Medical Center’s $45 million Cowell Family Cancer Center, hospital leaders are looking toward the next major phase of development at the Sixth Street campus.

Munson representatives appeared before Traverse City planning commissioners to present a plan that could add a new parking deck, several new hospital buildings, and a new wing that would extend across Sixth Street.

The proposed expansion is part of the hospital’s Master Site and Facility Plan, which provides a public record of any growth planned in the next five-plus years. The document allows city staff to monitor potential infrastructure needs, and keeps residents informed of any looming projects that might impact the surrounding neighborhood.

The newest iteration of the Master Site and Facility Plan shows Munson significantly expanding, building outward both north and east. Project sketches show a new parking deck replacing a large portion of the guest surface parking lot (Lot A) near Elmwood and Sixth streets, and the construction of several new buildings. The largest component of the project calls for a new pediatrics and birthing wing that would stretch across Sixth Street between the main hospital and Cowell Family Cancer Center.

“The main purpose of this expansion is to provide much-needed replacement facilities for our women and children’s services (obstetrics and pediatrics),” Munson Facilities Design Manager Doug Wipperman wrote in a memo to city staff. “The expansion will also include operating rooms expansion for surgical services, and replacements for medical and surgical beds.”

In order for the new center to be constructed, Munson would need to vacate and remove Sixth Street between Beaumont Place and Madison Street. A new street would be built to reroute Sixth Street approximately 200 feet north. That component of the project drew the most scrutiny during review from both city staff and planning commissioners.

“We are concerned with the unknown impacts this (plan) will have on traffic circulation in the vicinity of the medical campus,” City Engineer Tim Lodge wrote in a memo to commissioners, noting that both traffic and utility impacts would have to be analyzed before the rerouting could proceed.

Munson Vice President of Facilities and Support Services Steve Tongue told commissioners the hospital met with surrounding neighborhood associations earlier this month, and that nearly three dozen residents shared feedback on the plans. “Their biggest concern is, how will this affect the alleys?” Tongue said of the rerouting. “Would any change in circulation affect their alleys?”

Tongue said the hospital would work with the city to conduct a formal circulation study to determine the impacts of rerouting Sixth Street prior to coming back for official approval for that portion of the project. He said Munson’s board had considered seven scenarios for expansion, and chose this plan because it provided ideal connectivity between patient services and best positioned the hospital to accommodate future demand.

“When you do medical facilities planning, one of the things you look at is adjacencies,” Tongue explained, noting that hospitals coordinate their layouts around three major departments: emergency, surgical and radiology. By locating the new wing between the hospital and Cowell, doctors will be able to move patients “quickly without having to take them long distances through a facility,” Tongue said. 

Building the new wing in an elevated form over Sixth Street (leaving the street intact below) was eliminated as an option because it would put operating rooms in close proximity to traffic, according to Tongue.

Planning commissioners unanimously approved adding the new projects to Munson’s Master Site and Facility Plan. However, several noted that project plans and their approval are still conceptual. Munson will need to go through site plan reviews, special land use permit applications (for any buildings over 60 feet high), and a separate approval process for the Sixth Street vacation before the proposed developments can move ahead.