Council Continues Hearing on Health-Care District Tonight

Norristown Municipal Council meets again tonight at 7:30pm at and the top item on the agenda is the continuation of the public hearing for the new for the neighborhood around .

The hospital is set to close once the new Einstein Healthcare System Hospital being constructed in East Norriton is operational. Many of Montgomery Hospital's operations and employees will move to the new hospital.

The proposed Health-Care District ordinance will restrict zoning around Montgomery Hospital to prevent substance abuse and new social services as well as check-cashing, take-out beer and adult entertainment establishments from coming to the area. Exceptions for some senior service organizations will be made pending council approval.

The hearing was continued from October's council meeting after several people raised concerns about vague language and poorly defined terms in the current ordinance. Council agreed to revisit the language in the ordinance and continue the public hearing at tonight's meeting.

According to , the vote may have also been postponed because of pressure from the Montgomery County Commissioners who are looking to sell the who may want to rent parts of the building to new social service agencies.

Municipal Manager David Forrest told the Herald that he could not "confirm or deny that story,” but Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel told the paper that while it's no secret the county would like to sell the Human Services Center, the commissioners did not put any pressure on Norristown Municipal Council to delay a vote.

Tonight's continuation of the hearing will be an opportunity for residents and members of the social service industry to voice their concerns or their support the proposed zoning.

In other business, council will also be covering the new parking meters, voting to adopt the ordinance defining the streets to be metered and discussing time limits.

You can download the full agenda and the proposed Health-Care District ordinance (before any changes that might be revealed tonight) in our PDF section.