Chapter 19.26 MEDICAL SERVICES ZONING OVERLAY

The following uses shall be permitted within a medical services overlay:
A. Medical and health care uses including hospitals, outpatient clinics, continuing/long-term care services, hospice services, laboratories, medical research facilities, urgent or emergency medical services, offices of doctors, physical therapists, dentists and other health care providers;
B. Medical staff facilities and similar uses, including but not limited to administrative offices, educational and meeting facilities and staff sleeping quarters;
C. Child care and adult care services, including respite care;
D. Short-term residential uses dependant upon or directly related to medical care, including convalescent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, group homes for the disabled and overnight accommodations;
E. Health care related retail (i.e., pharmacy, medical supplies and equipment);
F. Miscellaneous retail trade including gift stores, bookstores, news stands, florist, jewelry, video sales/rentals, and other retail ancillary to and located within a medical services facility;
G. Cafeterias and food service within health care buildings and stand alone restaurants on the following conditions:
1. The maximum square footage is four thousand square feet,
2. There is no drive-thru window,
3. Alcohol sales are prohibited,
4. No stand alone restaurant may be developed until thirty percent of the land area is developed for other permitted uses;
H. Social service providers including counseling centers and alcohol and drug treatment facilities;
I. Accessory parking;
J. Utilities and public facilities.
(Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

The following uses require an additional conditional use permit for approval:
A. Medical helicopter landing pad on the following conditions:
1. Refueling tanks, services or storage of helicopters are not permitted on-site,
2. The landing pad meets the recommendations of the Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation Division and the Federal Aviation Administration,
3. Use shall be limited to emergency medical use only,
4. The helipad shall be sited no closer than one hundred feet to any right-of-way or property boundary;
B. Facilities for the treatment and/or temporary storage of biomedical, radioactive and hazardous waste generated within the overlay district; provided however that no materials may be transported to the site from other facilities for storage or treatment purposes. (Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

All development within the planned medical services overlay shall be governed by a master plan.
A. The master development plan shall constitute a binding site plan pursuant to RCW 58.17 and Chapter 18.24 of the Lynden Municipal Code and shall be reviewed and approved through the process described in said chapter of the Lynden Municipal Code. In addition to the requirements of Chapter 18.24, the master plan shall include the following:
1. A transportation and circulation plan prepared by a professional transportation engineer licensed to practice in the state of Washington;
2. A phasing plan for site improvements, landscaping and services;
3. General building locations and types, access points and circulation within the overlay area. (Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

² May be increased by ten percent when twenty-five percent of the parking is in an approved underground or multi-level parking facility.

G. Hospital or urgent care clinic parking (parking for all other uses as outlined within Section 19.51.040):
1. One space for every two beds; and
2. One space per employee on largest shift;
3. All required parking must be within three hundred feet of the hospital site. (Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

All buildings within the medical overlay are subject to review and approval by the design review board. Buildings within this area are not subject to compliance with the Historic Dutch Design Criteria. The design review board will consider the following items when reviewing the building plan:
A. Pedestrian Connectivity. The campus should have accessible pedestrian connections beyond standard sidewalks along the street. Special attention should be paid to crosswalks, connections between parking lots serving adjacent uses and interior walkway connections.
B. Landscaping. Minimum landscaping shall be as required within LMC Chapter 19.61; provided however, that additional landscaping may be required by the design review board at the time of building permit to achieve the following effects:
1. Effective screening of parking areas and eliminating monotony of parking areas;
2. Effective buffering of adjacent residential uses;
3. Enhance the building architecture and on-site landscaping;
4. Coordinate with the streetscape plantings required as part of the master plan.
C. Building Design. There should be continuity of character and building materials throughout the development to enhance a campus setting. Building design should provide articulation to avoid long blank walls and a scale appropriate to the setting. Where possible, buildings should be designed to screen parking and provide useful courtyard settings for users of the facilities.
D. All load and unloading facilities shall be provided off-street and screened appropriately. (Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

Medical uses are high traffic generating uses. Reducing the number of trips to the development creates a benefit to the city through less demand on the transportation system. To encourage employers within the medical overlay, the city of Lynden offers the following incentives:
A. The employee parking component of each use may be reduced by up to ten percent if the employer establishes a permanent commute trip reduction program that offers employees incentives such as transit passes, shuttle services or other similar programs to reduce the number of single occupant vehicles traveling to and from the site.
B. All potential planned medical developments will occur within an economic assistance zone. In addition to the economic development credit given to developers within the CS-3 and I-2 zones, an additional credit of ten percent of the original transportation impact fee may be given to those developers with an established permanent commute trip reduction program as noted above. (Ord. 1293 § A(part), 2007).

A. Minimum area for newly created lots	25,000 square feet
B. Minimum setback to interior street	15 feet
C. Minimum setback to exterior street	30 feet
D. Minimum distance between buildings	10 feet
E. Maximum height	45 feet¹
F. Maximum lot coverage	60%²