IVINS – A new medical school planned for Ivins has been issued a conditional use permit – another step towards construction of the facility, which is expected to start in February.
The Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Southern Utah branch, will be the second medical school in Utah. The school is expected to be open and accepting students by August 2017.
The new medical school was announced Oct. 6 at a joint special session of the Ivins City Council and Planning Commission. The project had previously been kept under wraps due to a nondisclosure agreement.
The school will be located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Center Street and 200 East in Ivins, on a 30-acre parcel of land that surrounds the Southern Utah Veterans Home.
Read more: Utah’s 2nd medical school slated for construction in Ivins
The next step in the process is passing an accreditation hearing in December, Ivins Mayor Chris Hart said, and then Rocky Vista will apply for a building permit and begin construction.
Rocky Vista is “hopefully optimistic” about the hearing, said Dr. David Park, who will be dean of the new medical school.
Rocky Vista received the conditional use permit and was also granted approval of a master plan concept at the Ivins City Council meeting Thursday. Rocky Vista was also granted permission to exceed the city’s height limit for commercial buildings of 35 feet.
The school’s main building entrance features an architectural element with a height of 44 feet, while other parts of the structure are less than 35 feet high.
The exception was granted because the front of the building is set back 100 feet from Center Street, and the architectural feature that exceeds 35 feet is 160 feet from the street. This falls within the city’s allowable 15-degree view angle as measured from the public road, Hart said.
Regionwide benefits
The new school will provide opportunities for local students to study and then practice medicine in the Southern Utah region, Hart said in an earlier interview. This will benefit Washington, Iron and Kane counties.
The school will also benefit the area economically, with students and their families living in or visiting Southern Utah, Hart said. The faculty and students will be a great addition to the area, enhancing the long-term caliber of education for local children by encouraging students who may want to attend medical school.
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And so it begins. I suppose no one should be surprised by the special request to violate the height requirement. Already this violates several components of the Ivins master plan, not least of which is “Preserve the natural beauty and vistas that give Ivins City its unique identity, including the Red Mountain and the other natural hillsides that surround the City, the natural washes, the lava beds, open spaces and the night sky.” The existence of a non-disclosure agreement prior to announcement should be a big red flag to Ivins citizens.
This whole development leaves one with the impression that if Ivins had a Mother, it would probably sell if to make a buck.
Oh shut up and deal with it !
That’s a nice response. Holger makes some valid points. The problem is that this area was zoned commercial and so this may be the best we can hope for. Otherwise we could have a Harmons with traffic in and out all day long and into the evening making traffic more of a nightmare than it will probably already be with this school.
Oh shut up and deal with it