Exemption to Iowa City zoning sought to allow Mercy Hospital expansion

IOWA CITY - Officials with Mercy Iowa City are looking to build an addition to the near-downtown hospital, but will need a reinstatement of an exemption to the city's zoning ordinance to do so.

Proposed amendments would revert a section of Iowa City's zoning code back to before the community's large-scale rewrite of the zoning ordinance in 2005.

'During that update process there was a change made to the zoning ordinance, it had inadvertently affected what could happen there in the future,” Iowa City Associate Planner Karen Howard said.

Before the 2005 rewrite process, zoning code included an exemption that allowed Mercy of Iowa City to expand 'without compliance with the dimensional requirements.”

That exemption was written out of code during the 2005 overhaul of the zoning ordinance and current zoning regulations 'are creating a restriction that will unduly prevent Mercy Hospital from redeveloping its surface parking lots into usable building space,” according to a city staff report. 'The hospital complex is well established in the neighborhood and facilities and activity associated with the hospital are an expected part of life in this area.”

The plan is to bring back the hospital's exemption from the floor area ratio provision, which determines the allowed floor area of a project based on its ratio to lot area. The change would allow construction up to 65 feet in height, with included language that building facades above the third story are stepped back at least 20 feet from the third floor facade.

The floor area ratio is a tool used to address building height and bulk by focusing taller development away from single-family homes and reduce the impact on nearby residential structures, Howard said.

'If you have a step back after a certain height it mitigates the height of the building, you perceive it to be a smaller building,” she said.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission will take up the matter at its Thursday meeting.

The amendments would allow Mercy of Iowa City officials to proceed with constructing a new building on the corner of Johnson and Jefferson streets, which is currently home to one of the hospital's surface parking lots.

Denice Connell, director of marketing and community relations with Mercy Iowa City, said in a Monday email that she could not comment on the hospital's plans for the site on the corner of Johnson and Jefferson streets.

According to city documents, hospital officials plan to build a single story building on the site, constructed in a manner that would support adding up to three additional stories on top in the future.