Holy Name Expansion Clears Planning Board, Headed To Council Vote

TEANECK, NJ — The Planning Board approved a proposed update to the township's master plan, clearing the way for a council vote on a major Holy Name Medical Center expansion in Teaneck.

Holy Name filed a request to amend the land use element of Teaneck's master plan, seeking a "vacation of a portion of Chadwick Road and the expansion of the existing H-Hospital Zone."

If approved, there are four phases to the plan as it currently stands, which estimates a build-out of 10 to 20 years. Among the new elements of the hospital's campus would be two nine-story hospital buildings, three new medical office buildings and a number of renovations to existing structures and access points.

Additional parking spaces are needed, the hospital said, as are ancillary services like child and adult day care.

However, these are just estimations of what may happen over the next decade or two, officials said in the proposal.

According to officials, this expansion request should come as no surprise to the township.

The hospital has "experienced both capacity issues and technological obsolesce for many years," they wrote. Additionally, the hospital's need to replace "undersized and outdated facilities as well as add to the number of inpatient beds and treatment facilities" was recognized as far back as 2007, and again over the years by the planning board in 2011, 2014 and 2017.

But the expansion would come with a cost.

Some homes, but not all, officials said, would be demolished, specifically near the entrance off Grange Road, to "allow for the expansion of surface parking and the addition of a child care center."

The 2007 master plan addressed this fact, stating that options for expansion included "splitting off certain of its functions, further intensifying its facilities on the present site, or seeking zoning changes that would allow it to purchase and raze neighboring homes, thereby allowing it to expand its physical boundaries."

Of the nearly 250 people that attended the virtual meeting, a chunk of them included neighbors of the hospital. Some of them spoke out against the plan, stating that they hadn't gotten a chance to add input to the conversation, according to NorthJersey.com.

Others saw no problem with the proposal as it stands, however, and noted how important the hospital was to the community, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.