This Tacoma behavioral healthcare campus is one step closer to opening its doors
Tacoma is poised to get new behavioral health sites along Pacific Avenue next year.
Public comments were due at the close of business Sept. 17 on a variance application related to extended-care housing at 3701 Pacific Ave. City spokesperson Maria Lee said no one submitted comments before deadline.
A decision on the variance will be made after a review of the application, Lee said. The location is in a Community Commercial Mixed-Use District. A variance is needed because residential isn't allowed there, she added, and extended-care facilities fall under that "residential" category.
Lee said the city previously approved a similar variance case at 3711 Pacific Ave.
No one submitted a comment then, either, said developer Destry Witt of Emerald City Health.
Enhanced services facilities, such as the 3711 location, are quaint, " community-based residential setting[s] " for people with behavioral health and personal-care needs, according to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Intensive behavioral health treatment facilities , like the 3701 location, are specialized to assist people with behavioral health issues, such as those who have been discharged from local and state hospitals, per the Washington State Health Care Authority.
Witt offered an updated timeline for the pair of Pacific Avenue behavioral health sites at the "Pacific Crest Behavioral Health Campus."
"Well, 3711 will be done in eight months, and then 3701 will be done six months after that," he told The News Tribune Sept. 12. "I don't see anything slowing us up now. We've got a whole new team of general contractors. We even hired some really smart consultants that are making my life a lot easier."
The News Tribune previously reported that such facilities fall under Gov. Jay Inslee's plan to improve access to behavioral healthcare in Washington. Inslee has aimed to shift focus away from larger psychiatric hospitals toward enhanced services facilities and intensive behavioral health treatment facilities.
The sites offer continued care but are viewed as steps down from acute-care hospitals , the newspaper wrote last year.
Extended-care facilities are defined in the city's code as places that offer around-the-clock supervised nursing care for people in need of regular medical attention, Lee noted via email. That excludes facilities that offer emergency medical or surgical services.
The variance application for 3701 Pacific Ave. was turned in Aug. 5, Lee said. Notices to the public were sent Sept. 3.
After a decision on the variance is issued, an appeal or request for reconsideration can be made within two weeks, according to TacomaPermits.org. The decision will stand if none are filed.
Other locations
Emerald City operates Lakewood's enhanced services facility , which Witt said has been running for 18 months. He counts it as successful and profitable.
He noted that an upcoming location on South Hosmer Street would be going through the permitting process soon.
Witt said the Department of Commerce awarded grants for the remodel of the Pacific Avenue facilities: $1.875 million (for 3711) and $2.5 million (for 3701). The estimated end cost will likely total about $8 million for the former and roughly $6 million for the latter. Both will feature 16 bedrooms.
The 3711 building is considered an out-patient facility while 3701 is in-patient, he said. As for size, Witt expects the two structures to ultimately measure close to 10,000-square-feet apiece.
Why was a permit needed?
The city in recent years has pursued the " Picture Pac Ave " project, which is aimed at development and growth along the namesake thoroughfare leading into downtown, Witt explained. The area, which boasts restaurants and the University of Washington Tacoma, has lots of potential in his view.
Many new developments will have an office or retail space on the main floor and residential area above, he said, adding that's what the city had hoped for this neighborhood, too.
"But because our buildings back up to Pacific Avenue, and you enter from the parking lot — which is the opposite side of Pacific Avenue — they gave us a variance, allowing us to have what might feel like a residential space on the main street," he said.
Witt said residents and patients will sleep on the second and third floors. The main floor will be used for offices and dining.
"But we had to get a variance," he continued. "They wanted to take a look at it and make sure that it made sense for the long-term plan, and we're quite happy that they agreed with the way we saw things, too."
What about the surrounding area?
Witt knows that some people might not be excited to see a behavioral health facility take root in their neighborhood. He said he tries to be mindful of that, planting new sites away from schools and other places where people might not be keen to interact with patients.
Witt previously told The News Tribune that setting up on Pacific Avenue makes sense . The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and 911 call center are close by, as is the needle exchange.
Speaking with the newspaper last week, Witt also mentioned the nearby 24 Hour Fitness gym.
"We'll get a big campus membership with them, and we'll probably send 100 people over there," he said. "We got a Walgreens next door, and our patients and residents consume a lot of pharmaceuticals, so hopefully that'll be good for them, too."
He added: "We want to be beneficial in the neighborhood."
