Planning Consultant Testifies at Zoning Board Helipad Hearing

Overlook Hospital continued its case for adding a helipad to the roof of the hospital in downtown Summit Tuesday night when Attorney Bart Sheehan called Michael Tobia, a planning consultant, to testify. Tobia argued that, despite the arguments of some neighbors, the helipad is an "inherently beneficial use" and should be allowed.

Tobia recapped much of the previous testimony from acoustical engineers and doctors to make his case that a helipad is an accessory use to the hospital and therefore should be allowed in the P1 professional zone–which he points out was created for the hospital

"My conclusion is this is easy," Tobia said. "This, in my opinion, is the highest order of inherently beneficial land uses."

In November of 2009, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a bill that defined inherently beneficial uses as ones that are "universally considered of value to the community" in that by their very nature, they "fundamentally serve the public good and promote the general welfare."

The purpose of designating "inherently beneficial land uses" is to lessen the burden of proof that a use will not be too detrimental to the neighborhood to allow.

Tobia applied the state Supreme Court's SECA v. Wall Township balancing test to conclude that in his opinion the helipad's benefits far outweighed any negative impacts.

"It is extremely rare that we deal with a land use that deals with life and death," he said.

Of the 11 comprehensive stroke centers in New Jersey, 10 have helicopter landing facilities, Tobia said. The one without: Overlook Hospital.

Tobia reiterated Dr. John Halperin's testimony that transferring stroke patients to Overlook by air versus by ground transport in an ambulance could save at minimum 20 minutes.

These 20 minutes, Tobia reiterated, could help prevent death, paralysis, blindness, speechlessness, loss of cognitive function, dependency on others, or a lifetime in a  nursing home.

But Tobia did acknowledge some of the negative effects of the helipad: noise, a slight chance of crashes, and a modest visual impact.

"I don't view a 20 second impact as a substantial detriment to the neighborhood, " Tobia said of the acoustical impacts previously testified to.

Although Tobia said the hospital's longstanding presence in the community has already established any negative impact on the neighborhood it would have, he added the that addition of a helipad would not increase these negatives because it wouldlargely not be visible to residents in the proposed location on the C-wing and the potential for helicopter crashes is slight.

"In general, the presence of the hospital positively affects property values in Summit," real estate expert Robert Hefferman said. "The access to medical service are excellent."

Overlook is proposing certain conditions of approval which the board may or may not agree to, such as the hospital will not seek designation as a trauma center and if the number of helicopter incidents exceeds the estimated range of 5-9 per month by 50 percent, the board may call a public hearing to reconsider the approval of the use.

But the proposed application also contains the consolidation of wireless communication antennae on the roof of the hospital. While currently there are 138, the proposal would lessen the number to 83. Tobia acknowledged what many residents have brought up before in questioning: that not all of the current antennae were put up with the proper permits from the city. Regardless of this fact, he said the board must still acknowledge that the roof of the hospital is still a preferable placement in the city rather than a free-standing tower.

In addition to Tobia, Hefferman was recalled to the stand for questions from the public. Many of the questions centered around Hefferman's methodology in his study of home prices in the flight paths at both Morristown Memorial Hospital and St. Barnabas in Livingston. As a result of his study, Hefferman said he can conclude home prices will not be affected by the helipad if it is built in Summit.

However, Hefferman said he did not study home prices from the time the helipads were initially put in place to the present nor did he measure the actual distance of the homes from the helipads.

However, Hefferman said he stands by his report.

"If there was some effect from the helicopters and helicopter noise from flying over these neighborhoods, then it would have shown up in the paired data analysis that we did."

The next zoning board meeting will be March 1 at 7:30 p.m.