Veterinarians Plan Upgraded Clinic

Two veterinarians who operate a long-standing clinic on Moran Prairie want a zone change to build a better clinic on the same property.

Some of the neighbors in the single-family residential zone are fighting the plan.

Robert Slack said he and his partner, Vern Brock, of Manito Veterinary Clinic, want to upgrade their practice by moving out of their 1960s-vintage building at 2308 E. 57th. They are proposing construction of a new state-of-the-art clinic next door at a cost of more than $300,000.

To make the move economically feasible, Slack said, the plan calls for remodeling the existing clinic into offices for lease.

A second phase of the project calls for construction of a new two-story office building to replace the remodeled clinic, Slack said. But that is years away.

The partners need a zone change from the county before any construction can begin.

A hearing before the county’s hearing examiner is scheduled for May 5 at 10:30 a.m. in the county commissioners’ assembly room in the lower level of the Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway.

One nearby resident is attorney Julie Harrington. In a letter included in the Planning Department file, Harrington said she will sue Slack to prevent him from building the offices and clinic.

Other residents said in letters that the two-story buildings are inappropriate for what’s largely a single-family neighborhood.

They argued that commercial uses should be concentrated near 57th and Regal or 57th and Perry. “The proposed development of a two-story structure on this property is not congruent with the single-family, low-density use of the neighborhood,” Steve and Jessie Wuerst said in a letter to the county.

Written comment will be accepted by the county through May 2.

Currently the .84-acre site is zoned for single-family residential use, which normally doesn’t allow offices. The veterinary clinic was built before the county established the present zoning, so it was allowed to continue under a conditional use permit.

Now Slack and Brock are asking for a change to a multifamily residential zone that also allows offices under county-approved plans.

The county conditions will include on-site handling of all stormwater in landscape swales. Also, the clinic will have to grant a 10-foot easement for the widening of 57th Avenue.

Slack said the field of veterinary medicine has progressed so much in recent years that the current facility hampers the animal doctors’ ability to deliver quality care.

A new facility would be soundproof. It would have better rooms for surgery and X-rays, he said.

“The building from the 1960s is functionally obsolete,” said Dwight Hume, a land-use consultant representing Slack in the zone change action.

Slack and his consultants met with neighbors earlier this year and are trying to address some of their concerns. For example, the new 4,300-square-foot clinic would not have windows looking out over yards behind the facility.

Also, the new clinic would be designed architecturally to fit in with the surrounding homes.

The clinic has worked with the neighborhood for years, he said, including cooperative arrangements with Ferris High School students.

Many of the clinic’s animal owners are from the surrounding neighborhood.

“We are just trying to be community people,” Slack said.

, DataTimes