On August 13, 2007, the Einstein-Montgomery Partnership signed an Agreement of Sale to purchase the 90-acre Wood’s property along Germantown Pike. Soon thereafter, I wrote a letter to the neighbors of the property, introducing myself and asking if I might speak with them about the proposed project. I have had the pleasure of meeting with many of our neighbors, and I have appreciated having the benefit of their comments and input regarding the new hospital. On November 8th, I sent a second letter updating the neighbors of our request for modest zoning changes. [See Letters #1 and #2 posted below]
Letter #1
September 13, 2007
Dear Neighbors:
I am writing to seek your input regarding an important new project that will improve access to a wide range of high quality healthcare services here in central Montgomery County. As you may know, the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network and the Montgomery Hospital Medical Center have joined together to expand and enhance the medical services readily available to you and your community. The local need for our initiative is clear — currently over 60% of the residents of central Montgomery County seek their inpatient hospital care outside of the area in which they live.
One of our primary goals is the construction of a new state of the art hospital that will serve the medical needs of the families of East Norriton and its surrounding neighborhoods and communities. We recently entered into an agreement with the owner of Wood’s Golf Center to purchase his property on Germantown Pike. This property has the potential to be an exceptional site for a new hospital.
We seek to provide top quality healthcare in an extraordinary, new local facility that is easily accessible for patients and visitors. In addition to providing excellent healthcare and emergency services close to home, a new hospital can provide community health outreach services, and many other benefits to local residents, schools and organizations. We commit to work with the Township to fully understand the potential traffic impact of our proposed development and we will work to preserve a portion of the new hospital’s grounds as open space to further benefit the community.
As we develop our plans for the new hospital, we are eager to have your input and to build a good relationship with you and all of our new neighbors in East Norriton. We understand that some of you may have questions or concerns about our initiative, and we would like to work with you to understand those concerns, answer questions, and benefit from suggestions that will help make our hospital and its facilities as valuable as possible to you and your community. The new hospital is not yet designed and your input will be extremely important to us as we strive to build a state of the art facility that enhances the quality of life of this community, both by improving local access to needed medical services and by respecting our area’s natural resources.
I would very much appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your ideas and suggestions. My schedule is flexible and I can meet with you either during the day or early evening, whichever is more convenient for you. Please feel free to contact me so that we might schedule a time to meet.
Thank you in advance for your time, and for your help in shaping this outstanding new community resource.
Sincerely,
Richard Montalbano
Vice President and Project Executive
215-456-7018
montalbanor@einstein.edu
Download Neighbor Letter as PDF
Letter #2
November 8, 2007
Dear Neighbor (s):
On September 13, 2007, I wrote to you introducing myself and asking if I might have the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the new hospital the Einstein-Montgomery Partnership is planning for East Norriton Township. I thank all of you who took the time to contact me, and I especially thank those who were kind enough to invite me into their homes. I had the pleasure of meeting with about thirty of you, and we are grateful to have the benefit of the neighborhood’s input and views.
In our meetings, we spoke of many issues including certain zoning changes that might be advantageous for both the new hospital and its neighbors. Specifically, as we discussed, the 90-acre Wood property on Germantown Pike has two zoning classifications – Institutional and Commercial. The rear 60 acres, the portion closest to your homes, is zoned Institutional and allows the construction of a hospital by right. The front 30 acres along Germantown Pike is zoned Commercial. We would like to change the Commercial zone to Institutional. This change will enable us to place the hospital closer to Germantown Pike and farther from your property. On November 7th, we filed this zoning change request with East Norriton Township.
One of the questions asked of me during our meetings was how we can stay in touch. A website was suggested. I am happy to announce that we recently launched a website – www.movinghealthcareforward.org — where I encourage you to go for information about the new hospital project.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. My phone number and e-mail are below. We look forward to your continued input on this outstanding new community resource.
Sincerely,
Richard Montalbano
Vice President and Project Executive
215-456-7018
montalbanor@einstein.edu
Download Nov. 8, 2007 Neighbor Letter as PDF
