The purpose of the medical services overlay is to allow areas for the concentration of medical facilities and related uses in a campus like setting to enable the provision of a wide range of medical services to enhance the public's health, safety and general welfare.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

The provisions of this chapter shall apply to CSR and IBZ zones.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1390, § D, 2-22-2011; Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

The minimum size for a development using the medical services overlay shall be four acres. For purposes of this section, the "minimum size for a development" shall mean the parcel size prior to any land division for development of uses authorized in LMC Section 19.26.40 or Section 19.26.50.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

The following uses shall be permitted within a medical services overlay:

A.

Medical and health care uses including hospitals, outpatient clinics, continuing/long term care services, hospice services, laboratories, medical research facilities, urgent or emergency medical services, offices of doctors, physical therapists, dentists and other health care providers.

B.

Medical staff facilities and similar uses, including, but not limited to, administrative offices, educational and meeting facilities and staff sleeping quarters;

C.

Childcare and adult care services, including respite care;

D.

Short term residential uses dependent upon or directly related to medical care, including convalescent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, group homes for the disabled and overnight accommodations;

E.

Health care related retail (i.e. pharmacy, medical supplies and equipment);

F.

Miscellaneous retail trade including gift stores, bookstores, newsstands, florist, jewelry, video sales/rentals, and other retail ancillary to and located within a medical services facility;

G.

Cafeterias and food service within health care buildings and stand-alone restaurants on the following conditions:

1.

The maximum square footage is four thousand square feet.

2.

There is no drive thru window.

3.

Alcohol sales are prohibited.

4.

No stand-alone restaurant may be developed until thirty percent of the land area is developed for other permitted uses.

H.

Social service providers including counseling centers and alcohol and drug treatment facilities;

I.

Accessory parking;

J.

Utilities and public facilities.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

The following uses require an additional conditional use permit for approval:

A.

Medical helicopter landing pad on the following conditions:

1.

Refueling tanks, services or storage of helicopters are not permitted on-site;

2.

The landing pad meets the recommendations of the Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation Division and the Federal Aviation Administration;

3.

Use shall be limited to emergency medical use only;

4.

The helipad shall be sited no closer than one hundred feet to any right-of-way or property boundary;

B.

Facilities for the treatment and/or temporary storage of biomedical, radioactive and hazardous waste generated within the overlay district; provided however that no materials may be transported to the site from other facilities for storage or treatment purposes.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

A.

Development of property within the planned medical services overlay which includes the division of land shall be accomplished by binding site plan pursuant to the process and requirement set forth at Chapter 18.24 LMC. Development of property within the planned medical services overlay requiring of infrastructure improvements but not any division of land shall also be accomplished pursuant to the process and requirements of Chapter 18.24 LMC, without the actual division.

B.

In addition to meeting the requirements of Chapter 18.24 LMC, property development requiring land division or the phasing of infrastructure improvements in the planned medical services overlay shall include the following:

1.

A transportation and circulation plan prepared by a professional transportation engineer licensed to practice in the State of Washington;

2.

A phasing plan for site improvements, landscaping and services;

3.

General building locations and types, access points and circulation within the overlay area;

C.

A binding site plan and conformance with Chapter 18.24 LMC is not required for development which does not proposed either land division or the phasing of infrastructure improvements.

1.

Developments proposing neither land division nor the phasing of infrastructure improvements may proceed directly to design review as described in Section 19.26.080.

2.

All development may utilize the site development standards described below in Section 19.26.070.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 1603, § A, adopted July 6, 2020, changed the title of § 19.26.060 from "Master development plan required" to read as set out herein.

1.

Except as otherwise noted, the site development restrictions shall be as follows:

¹  Higher height limits may be obtained through a conditional use permit.

²  May be increased by ten percent when twenty-five percent of the parking is in an approved underground or multi-level parking facility.

G.

Hospital or urgent care clinic parking (parking for all other uses as outlined within Section 19.51.040):

1.

One space for every two beds;

2.

One space per employee on largest shift; and

3.

All required parking must be within three hundred feet of the hospital site.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

All buildings within the medical overlay are subject to review and approval by the design review board. Buildings within this area are not subject to compliance with the historic Dutch design criteria. The design review board will consider the following items when reviewing the building plan:

A.

Pedestrian connectivity: The campus should have accessible pedestrian connections beyond standard sidewalks along the street. Special attention should be paid to crosswalks, connections between parking lots serving adjacent uses and interior walkway connections.

B.

Landscaping: Minimum landscaping shall be as required within Chapter 19.61 LMC; provided however, that additional landscaping may be required by the design review board at the time of building permit to achieve the following effects:

1.

Effective screening of parking areas and eliminating monotony of parking areas;

2.

Effective buffering of adjacent residential uses;

3.

Enhance the building architecture and on-site landscaping;

4.

Coordinate with the streetscape plantings required as part of the master plan.

C.

Building Design: There should be continuity of character and building materials throughout the development to enhance a campus setting. Building design should provide articulation to avoid long blank walls and a scale appropriate to the setting. Where possible, buildings should be designed to screen parking and provide useful courtyard settings for users of the facilities.

D.

All load and unloading facilities shall be provided off street and screened appropriately.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)

Medical uses are high traffic generating uses. Reducing the number of trips to the development creates a benefit to the city through less demand on the transportation system. To encourage employers within the medical overlay; the city of Lynden offers the following incentives:

A.

The employee parking component of each use may be reduced by up to ten percent if the employer establishes a permanent commute trip reduction program that offers employees incentives such as transit passes, shuttle services or other similar programs to reduce the number of single occupant vehicles traveling to and from the site.

B.

All planned medical developments that occur within an economic assistance zone as outlined in Resolution 709 may receive an economic development credit. In addition to that credit, developers within the CSR and IBZ zones may be eligible for an additional credit of ten percent of the original transportation impact fee to those developers with an established permanent commute trip reduction program as noted above.

(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

(Ord. No. 1390, § D, 2-22-2011; Ord. No. 1547, § 12, 12-4-2017; Ord. No. 1603, § A, 7-6-2020)