Hospital moves outside of city

After attempting to build a hospital in Bloomington, Dr. Kamal Tiwari is now planning to move his hospital outside city limits and into the jurisdiction of Monroe County. His change of plans comes after the Bloomington City Plan Commission failed to give a recommendation to the Bloomington City Council. \nThe petition drew criticism from the administration of the Bloomington Hospital, which felt that another hospital in the city would create unnecessary competition. A vague definition concerning outpatient and inpatient care and the hours of operation caused many physicians to speak out at the last City Council meeting when the petition was denied.\nTiwari changed his plans, redefining the term "outpatient," and resubmitted the petition for a recommendation to the City Council. The commission again failed to give a recommendation for several reasons. \nTiwari said he feels certain departments within the city did not help to advance his petition, thus prompting him to reconsider his petition and move the location.\n"City Council will not approve the zoning for my project," Tiwari said. "Bloomington Hospital has political influence over the City Council, and I didn't have enough votes. I only had four, they had five, and (the City Council) politically outmaneuvered me," Tiwari said. "So I decided to go somewhere else. The county was available and welcomed me."\nTiwari said the county approached him about moving his hospital even before the City Council had made its decision, but Tiwari waited until the final vote.\n"I wanted to give City Council the opportunity, and I did not respond to the county's invitation. So it was natural for me to look to other locations after my plan was rejected," he said.\nThe new full hospital will be located at Indiana State Road 37 and Fullerton Pike -- outside city boundaries. \nTom Micuda, director of the Bloomington Planning Department, declined to comment on Tiwari's statements but gave several reasons why the Plan Commission failed to give a recommendation on his petition.\n"First, the rezoning petition from Tiwari would have required the city to expand public money to construct a necessary frontage road in the future," Micuda said. "The second reason is there were members of the Plan Commission who felt that the definition of the proposals outpatient facility needed to be further restricted to bring it in line with the input the Plan Commission received with Bloomington Hospital."\nMicuda also said the hours of the proposed business were a concern.\n"Specifically, the representative spoke of the need to restrict the overnight hours of the hospital, the specific concern Bloomington Hospital thought the facility should have no operation hours between 12 and 5."\nNow that the the proposed hospital is out of city limits, the county only needs to review the proposal. The land is already prezoned, so the county will not need to accept or reject the plan.\nJeff Ellington, a representative of the Monroe County Plan Commission, said he had not yet seen the plans, but Tiwari's proposal will sit on a part of what had been planned to be a $3.5 million infrastructure for a Menards store, which later moved into the city. \n"I haven't seen the plans," Ellington said. "What concerns me is the $3.5 million infrastructure we had, but the city talked Menards to move into city, and we lost $3.5 million in proposed infrastructure."\nEllington said the Plan Commission will review the proposal and make sure the site is used to it's fullest capacity.\n"The planning director wants to go over it very thoroughly," Ellington said. "We, as a commission, are going to make sure we can get (as much) out of this developer's site as we can. It will never go to the Plan Commission because it's already prezoned and been pre-approved, thus the county won't have to vote to approve anything."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Jancek at lmjancek@indiana.edu.