By Sara StrongThe Luverne City Council approved a preliminary plat for the new Luverne Community Hospital and Clinic Tuesday, to the satisfaction of most parties involved.Resident Parnell Thorson, who objected to the previous hospital layouts said, "For us, as residents, we should thank the city administrator for being a go between for us."Mayor Glen Gust said, "I can’t express how important it is for everyone to work together for the betterment of Rock County and the city of Luverne."The final plat still has to go through the Planning Commission and the City Council for final approval.Neighborhood meetingSioux Valley, city of Luverne and county representatives met with northern city residents Thursday, Oct. 23, in an effort to explain how traffic will change with the new hospital and clinic in their back yards.A number of Veterans Drive residents have been outspoken about the access that will take some hospital and clinic traffic through their neighborhood.Jeff Stearns said to Sioux Valley representatives, "We’re not upset you’re coming, we’re thrilled, but there are concerns here."Steve Perkins spoke as a property owner on Veterans Drive. He said, "First, we should be happy we’re getting the hospital. … It’s the largest investment ever made in the community, public or private."Perkins pointed out that Sioux Valley wanted to locate south of Interstate 90, near Pamida, but many groups within the city lobbied for the northern location. "[The Veterans Drive access] has been the only complaint about the hospital," Perkins said.The main issues for the residents at the meeting were:oThe project was far along before the neighborhood was involved, or informed that Veterans Drive was the access plan. Even without the city formally approving the plat, dirt work was started in September.oAlthough current plans don’t make Veterans Drive the main access point for the hospital, traffic counts will increase on the narrow street. Residents are worried about decreased privacy, property values and safety.Perkins said safety concerns are the same all over town, including residential areas where children play by the current hospital and clinic. Veterans Drive will not be the primary road to the new Luverne Community Hospital and Clinic, but that was the thought up to about a month ago. New plans call for Veterans Drive to merge with a new driveway to be constructed off of Highway 75. Veterans Drive will no longer be accessible directly from Highway 75. Counterpoints to the citizen concerns were:oSioux Valley is designing buffers and elevations to minimize parking lot and vehicle lights on residents.oIt will advertise and tell patients to use 131st Street or Highway 75 for their access to the hospital, minimizing traffic through Veterans Drive. It will also tell its more than 200 employees to not use Veterans Drive. Also, people aren’t expected to even want to drive through the narrow, curving street to get to the hospital and clinic. Road signs won’t direct drivers to use Veterans Drive.Actual current traffic counts were performed by the Rock County Highway Department Oct. 20 and 21. Counters were placed at four locations on Veterans Drive, from Highway 75 to Blue Mound Avenue. The average daily traffic for that section of roadway was 386. Sioux Valley estimated that its traffic would cause an additional 87 vehicles to pass through Veterans Drive daily. The current measures will likely reduce that.Another development to ease traffic through Veterans Drive is the city’s intention to extend East Christensen Drive to the parking lot on the east side of the property. If the city includes that in the Sioux Valley Drive construction, it will cost about $90,000 to $100,000.Hospital employees and patients will be told not to use this road, either. It’s expected that only very north Luverne residents will even want to use Christensen and Veterans Drives.Without those traffic reducing measures, it was expected that an additional 4.4 cars per hour would use Veterans Drive.Luverne City Administrator Greg LaFond said, "Given where we’re at today, we’re trying to solve these problems. … It’s unfortunate that we didn’t all sit down and discuss this together earlier."Sioux Valley designed the new hospital and clinic to face where it was told the entrance would be. Now it says that completely changing the access would mean decreased visibility to its patients.Some of the residents didn’t buy into that. They said that a due east access off of Highway 75 (further north) would be just as convenient for patients, and would keep them happy by not involving Veterans Drive at all.Now, the compromise appears to have pleased all parties, even though Veterans Drive still connects to the hospital entrance.
