Plainfield meeting
Hundreds of Plainfield residents packed the high school cafeteria Thursday to hear community planners give their recommendations for the former Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center site.
(Katie Lannan)
PLAINFIELD — The closure of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in 2008 left the city without a hospital, a loss community members continue to mark with annual commemorations around the Aug. 13 anniversary.
Six years later, with much of the 17-acre Randolph Road property unoccupied, community planning consultants say that healthcare should return to the site.
Representatives from a city-hired planning firm unveiled last week their draft recommendations for the best uses of the property and said that medical-related businesses and organizations would best serve residents.
“The bottom line of this analysis is that there is justification for an ongoing, continuing healthcare presence at the Muhlenberg site,” said Fred Heyer of Heyer, Gruel and Associates, the company that has been studying the site since February.
When the State Health Planning Board approved the closure of the full-service hospital in 2008, its members mandated that an emergency department must remain active on that site for at least five years.
JFK Medical Center’s Muhlenberg Campus satellite emergency department continues to operate today, and the Edison-based company told city officials it plans to continue offering those services.
JFK recently received Planning Board approval to move its emergency room from the main facility into the Kenyon House, a smaller two-story building on the campus that already houses a dialysis center.
Heyer and his partner, Susan Gruel, said their research found that healthcare and wellness facilities, plus related businesses, should move in to the rest of the Muhlenberg property.
These businesses, Gruel said, could include outpatient treatment, urgent care, medical research and technology companies, pharmacies, laboratories, veterans’ housing and assisted living centers.
The consultants proposed a six-acre healthcare campus on the property, featuring 200,000 square feet of new construction, of which at least half would have to be devoted to medical uses.
Heyer said the remaining 100,000 could also become or healthcare and hospital facilities, but any developer to buy the site could have the option of using up to 50,000 square feet for assisted living or veterans’ housing.
“They’re uses that are economically viable,” he said. “There seems to be some demand for them, and they are uses that do supplement and complement healthcare. Assisted living has a relationship with healthcare facilities, and there are special healthcare needs that are often associated with veterans’ housing.”
The proposal for those specialty residences is drawing criticism from some residents, who said they indicated at three community meetings they wanted no housing whatsoever on the site.
Board of Education member Frederick Moore said he didn’t feel the desires of residents were represented in the study, calling it a “bait and switch.”
“If we say today that we don’t want housing, and we said at the other three meetings that we don't want housing, what is the nuance here?” he said. “We don't want housing. No. None. Zero.”
At each of community meetings, residents gave planners the same message, said Dottie Gutenkauf, a Plainfield resident active in the efforts to restore a hospital to the Muhlenberg campus.
“They’ve heard several of the same things,” she said. “One, we want our hospital back. Most of us do feel that serious health services are absolutely necessary in a city of this size.”
Heyer and Gruel said they would return later this year with final recommendations that incorporate the community response to their draft.
Katie Lannan may be reached at klannan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @katielannan. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Stay up-to-the-minute with the latest Union County news by bookmarking nj.com/union.