OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A controversial plan to expand the Overland Park Regional Medical Center is set to go before the Overland Park City Council on Monday night.
The hospital is hoping to gain approval for a new 700,000 square foot building and a three-story parking garage. But neighbors of the hospital say that the planned expansion would bring the buildings too close to their property, hurting the value of their homes.
Darby Trotter has lived next to Overland Park Regional for 30 years. He told FOX 4 last month that there won’t be any longtime homeowners in the future if the hospital expansion puts a five-story building where the parking lot now meets the grass.
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“It’s coming up closer to these homes and everything that these people treasure in terms of their backyard space and their homes will be completely destroyed,” Trotter said. “It would be a huge monstrosity sitting in your backyard and nobody would buy that house.”
But Overland Park Regional Medical Center CEO Damond Boatwright says that just the opposite is true.
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“(The expansion) will inject $120 million into the city,” said Boatwright in January. “The jobs are shovel ready from day one. New jobs, tax revenue, we believe this will increase property values, not decrease property values.”
If the proposed expansion is approved by the City Council, the hospital says that they would break ground four to six months later.
