Hospital wants property rezoned

Wood County Hospital has petitioned to have its 37.2717-acre property at 950 W. Wooster St. rezoned from S-3, planned institutional, to I-1, institutional.The petition comes before the Bowling Green Planning Commission Jan. 8, which will likely follow its long-standing policy of setting the issue for a public hearing at the following month's meeting, which would be Feb. 5.The property stretches from Wooster Street to Conneaut Avenue. Parcels are owned by a combination of Wood County Hospital Inc. and Wood County Hospital Association.On the petition, Vice President of Support Services William R. Kidd indicated the reason for the request was "quicker plan review process to allow hospital to implement changes to benefit community."Zoning classifications with the "S" designation require the property owner to present a detailed site plan to show proposed changes.The changes must meet city specifications before going before the commission. The commission almost always holds an optional hearing before passing such requests on to city council.The commission can suggest changes but cannot impose conditions outside of the code requirements.Council is required to hold a public hearing before it takes action. Taking into account the time required to announce and hold hearings, an S-district change usually takes about six months.Projects would continue to be subject to the same administrative review as those in non "S" districts, which typically take a much shorter period of time.