Northern Arizona Healthcare has responded to a citizens group that submitted enough signatures to put the new hospital project on the November ballot. Proposition 480 would likely bring a halt to a billion dollar medical campus, that would include a new hospital located just north of Fort Tuthill, if the project fails at the ballot box. NAH said in a press release Wednesday that on Tuesday they filed a request with Coconino County Superior Court to disqualify Prop 480 from the City of Flagstaff special election ballot because the agreement with the city stipulates, “the land can only be used to build a hospital, ambulatory care center, associated parking and public open space.” NAH claims the referendum that voters signed says “the site will be used to construct retail and commercial space, with no intention of health care facilities.” They say Arizona case law demands strict compliance with elections regulations. Case law requires a court to disqualify any referendum from the ballot if the description fails to “communicate objectively false or misleading information” about the measure. The group claims to have collected over 56-hundred signatures in 30 days. So far a hearing date and time has not been set. Both NAH and the City have not commented on matter.
To read the development agreement between NAH and the City of Flagstaff, click here:
Here is the word for word summary taken from the petition:
“Ordinance No. 2023-11 amends the Flagstaff Zoning Map to rezone approximately 98.39 acres of real property from rural residential and estate residential to highway commercial, permitting for example, retail trade businesses or establishments engaged primarily in selling or offering for sale personal property to the public and public facilities and adds the resource protection overlay to areas generally located at 1120 West Purple Sage Trail, providing for , authority for clerical corrections and establishing an effective date.
Northern Arizona Healthcare Corporation applied for the amendment. The Flagstaff City Council approved the amendment. The amendment is conditioned upon the Corporation (NAH) satisfying several conditions including: constructing all intersections as “protected intersections,” providing a 60-foot front landscape buffer from Buelah Boulevard and that requirements of the zoning code and other city codes, ordinances and regulations will be met by the proposed development agreement as amended within the NAH Health Village Phase 1 Specific Plan.
