Subject:
Title
Public Hearing on Recommendation to Town Council on Proposed Medical Testing Zoning Text Amendment
Body
EXPLANATION AND SUMMARY:
At their January 24, 2022 meeting, Town Council referred a draft zoning text amendment related to temporary medical testing facilities to the Planning Commission. The amendment to Article 5, Section 18-13, as drafted by Councilmember Anderson, adds a subsection “L” to Section 18-13 and would allow the Town Manager to approve temporary medical testing facilities to operate during times of public health emergencies.
As originally proposed, these temporary facilities would be able to operate at properties for which conditional use permits have been approved for the operation of churches or other places of worship, colleges and schools (private, elementary and high) of a noncommercial nature, and institutional homes and institutions of an educational or philanthropic nature. These conditional uses are currently allowed in the RS-16, RS-12.5, and RS-10 single-family detached residential zoning districts.
Staff notes that the zoning ordinance currently does not address such uses. However, over the past year, a temporary drive-through testing site along Maple Avenue was permitted through the “Emergency Ordinance to Permit Temporary Waivers of Zoning Regulations and Review for Public, Semi-Public and Private Institutions Adversely Effected by the Ongoing Pandemic Disaster,” which expired on December 31, 2021. The Town Manager subsequently permitted a wind-down period of the testing facility through January 31, 2022.
Recommended Staff Changes to Original Proposal
The Planning and Zoning Staff has reviewed the proposed ordinance and provided recommended changes to the original proposal. These changes are included in the attachments and help clarify that the facilities need to be licensed and that the public health emergencies need to by declared by a local, state, or federal government agency.
In regards to licensing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does regulate testing through the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (CLIA). Certain sites may operate with a CLIA Certificate of Waiver.
As for declaration of a public health emergency, the ordinance, as suggested, requires declaration by a local, state, or federal government agency. For example, the federal government, through the Health and Human Services, recently renewed a determination that a public health emergency exists as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic (<https://aspr.hhs.gov/legal/PHE/Pages/COVID19-14Jan2022.aspx>).
Additionally, Staff recommends not including “institutional homes and institutions of an educational or philanthropic nature” as a use in which these facilities are allowed. Staff can only locate one record of a CUP application for such a use in a single-family detached home. Staff has a concern that institutional homes can include single-family family detached homes, which are not suitable for testing sites. Churches and places of worship, as well as schools, have sites that are more appropriate for and are able to handle temporary medical testing facilities. They often have large campuses with ample parking and can handle a greater circulation of people on their sites.
Town Council set a public hearing for February 28, 2022. However that public hearing can be set at a later date if Planning Commission wishes to continue the public hearing or hold a work session.
PROPOSED/SUGGESTED MOTION
Recommended Action
"I move to close the public hearing."
And
“I move to recommend the text amendments to Section 18-13 related to temporary medical testing facilities, as presented by Staff.”
Or
Other action deemed necessary by Council.