Friday's Internet Edition, July 30, 2010.
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The Clemmons Courier - For a year, the Clemmons Village Council sidestepped the fray between Forsyth and Baptist hospitals, but the long-simmering hospital battle may land on the council’s doorstep soon.
Freda Springs, Forsyth Hospital and Novant Health public relations manager, said Forsyth has formally accepted the conditions imposed by the State of North Carolina’s Certificate of Need Section for the $96 million hospital to be built. Gregory Beier, president of Novant, issued the letter Jan. 10.
Springs said Forsyth will ask the Village of Clemmons for a zoning change as soon as a site plan has been finished. “We are continuing to work through the details of the site plan, so when we do submit, it will be a plan which everyone can feel very good about,” she said. “Of course part of our process will be to work with Village of Clemmons officials and the community to finalize a plan that will be a model for smart, community-sensitive development in the future.”
The Clemmons project may yet face other roadblocks, but it will be one of largest zoning requests the village council has encountered.
While the council didn’t lobby for or against a hospital at several state hearings last year, Mayor John Bost said the council has kept up with the issue and in touch with Novant during the process.
“Our silence has not been apathy. Our silence has been prudence,” he said. “We didn’t want to appear we had made any decision about the Novant site plan before it came before our council.”