St. Joseph zone change gets OK Neighbors had expressed concern about expansion, property use

BANGOR – While acknowledging the concerns of some in the east side neighborhood, the City Council on Monday approved a plan to rezone several residential properties around St. Joseph Hospital.

The council, after determining that the hospital’s request was consistent with the city’s plan for the area, voted 7-2 to rezone nine properties around the Broadway hospital from residential to government and institutional.

The change was months in the making, with city leaders first tabling the request and asking hospital officials to meet with those concerned about the hospital’s growing presence in the shrinking residential neighborhood.

“We’ve gone where no applicant has gone before,” Ed Bearor, a Bangor attorney representing St. Joseph, said of the hospital’s efforts to inform neighbors of any future expansion plans.

But neighbors on Monday turned out to ask the council to move slowly on the request, which they said would forever change the character of the area and possibly decrease the value of their remaining residential properties.

“I can sympathize with the hospital but we’ve got a neighborhood here too to think about,” said Anne Marie Messer, who has lived at the corner of Congress and Center streets for 22 years.

Under the hospital’s plan, most of the rezoned properties, which are already owned by the hospital, would be used for administrative uses or parking. The only concrete expansion plan at this point, unrelated to the rezoning requests, is a three-story addition on the south end of the hospital’s old wing to house a magnetic resonance imaging center.

Citing neighbors’ concerns, the council earlier this month directed the planning board to review the city’s comprehensive plan for the area, which is currently targeted for uses such as those proposed by the hospital.

As part of its review, the planning board will hold a public hearing Dec. 2 before making its recommendation to the council regarding the remaining properties in the triangle within Center Street, Congress Street and Broadway.

In other business, newly elected City Councilor David Nealley presented the city a portrait of his great-great-grandfather, Edward Bowdoin Nealley, who served as the city’s mayor from 1885 to 1886.