The days and hours of operation will stay the same.
There's no increase in patients being served or services provided.
And just no change in the facility at all.
They're not expanding the facility.
So it involves making access to health care easier and better for the patients,
especially the vulnerable patients that they serve.
And our CEO will talk about that.
And we did get a referral because we were removing three heritage trees and replacing them with numerous trees of the same diameter.
And we got a refusal because this is an RSA three-zone lot and non-accessory parking is prohibited in that lot.
So that's why we have two, the refusal and the referral.
and the heritage trees there's one in the front one on the side and one in the back and obviously
to have a parking lot they have to be removed and they will be replaced with similar size
trees in terms of diameter as required by the zoning code with the trees being those
permitted under the City Planning Commission guidelines. The landscape architect retained
an arborist to properly measure and document the trees being removed to ensure that the replacement
trees met the requirements of the zoning code. And again because of the location these three
heritage trees must be removed. And you can see there's one tree there, one tree there, and then
one trade behind the structure. As part of the plan, if approved, they would also improve
the crosswalk across Mount Airy Avenue. And in preparation for the meeting, a transportation
impact study was completed by Traffic Planning and Design, and Shelby Lynch from TPD is also
here today to address any transportation issues. Their report is at Exhibit 8. And
in the summary, it says all intersection levels of service will operate an acceptable level of
B or better. As a consequence, no changes to any intersections or anything along those lines are
required. Simply, they're just not adding any new traffic to what's already there. They're just
changing where some of the people park across the street. The community will benefit by having a new
parking lot providing easier access to the Muraki facility for the handicapped and vulnerable
patients that they serve. Again, there's no increase in services, no increase in patients,
no new cars coming in, just a change of where some of the cars park so that people can actually
so that people can actually access the building easier.
access the building easier. The parking lot will have right turn in.
The parking lot will have right turn in and right turn out and only, again, making access easier.
There was some talk about the Germantown Avenue parking lot over here.
And that parking lot, yes, it's a parking lot for Merricky, but it goes to the second floor.
patients come into the first floor and our ceo will explain numerous other problems with trying
to use that parking lot for these patients it's not an improvement um problematic as well so um
again shelby lynch will explain how the parking lot will function and how the limited number of
vehicles accessing the parking lot and coupled with reduction in patients especially handicapped
people walking across Mount Area Avenue will actually increase safety in the area and it will
provide a much safer van dropping off and picking up point for other patients. The parking lot will
be fully landscaped as required by the zoning code and again no net loss in caliper or diameter of
trees. There will be a tree replacement and maintenance plan including a contract with the
landscaping company for the parking lot. The parking lot will also have a trench drain system
and sump box at the end of the driveway prior to reaching Mount Area Avenue. It will capture
stormwater before it gets to the sidewalk or street, and that will run the entire width of
the driveway, and that will improve conditions when storms happen, because there is no system
right now on the site. We believe the requested variance is the minimum necessary to make use of
this property. These twin homes have been unused for many years, and the physical structures cannot
be used for any permitted purpose. They're next to a large medical facility that creates a
hardship to the land, makes the properties not suitable for residential use, and they've been
vacant for a long time. It's also cost prohibitive to renovate the homes to modern standards,
including code compliance. They could theoretically use these as a group home, which
Meraki runs, but these buildings cannot be converted into that use because of the huge
cost to convert them. And again, we're not going to substantially, we're not going to increase
congestion at all. And that will be demonstrated by the transportation impact study. We're talking
about the orderly growth of the area. We're not going to impair light and air to surrounding
properties. In fact, we'll improve it. We'll improve the area. Our landscape architect will
talk about that as well. Again, this parking lot will be beneficial by making healthcare access
much easier to the patients, much easier and safer to the patients that Meraki serves. And we believe
that we should be granted the relief, the special exception and variances.
Like I said, Mr. Chairman, I do have three witnesses,
and I'd like to first call on Sarah Trenhauser, the CEO of Markey.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello?
Turn it on if there's a button there.
Okay, good. Thank you.
Sarah Trenhauser, S-A-R-A-H-T-H-R-E-N-H-A-U-S-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What's your position with Marikey?
I'm the CEO of Marikey Total Health. How long have you been in that position?
Since 2021, about three years. Would you please describe a typical patient to the board?
So, Marikey provides services for vulnerable individuals throughout the state, the city,
and throughout the country. Marikey provides services for individuals with intellectual
and developmental disabilities, serious mental illness, addiction issues, children with autism
and other special support needs, and Marikeet Total Health provides primary care to that
population. Our typical patient is going to be a patient that is uninsured or majority on Medicaid.
It's a population that has a disability and or a substance use issue or a serious mental illness.
Likely, they also have significant chronic physical health conditions, things like hypertension,
diabetes, asthma, things that also exacerbate their conditions. Additionally, the majority
of our patients are also dealing with other socioeconomic factors that influence their
health. So housing, food insecurity, things of that nature. So this is a population that
faces significant barriers throughout their lives and faces barriers obtaining medical care
regularly. What issues do you have with the present parking and drop-off and pickup arrangement?
So Merrikey does own the parking lot across the street, as was demonstrated in the exhibits.
The parking there is used currently for all of our patients as well as staff.
However, this parking lot is in the middle of Mount Airy Avenue, so that right now produces
right now produces a situation where frequently our patients are crossing in the middle of the
a situation where frequently our patients are crossing in the
block going across the street on Mount Airy. So this includes our patients that are frequently
in wheelchairs, have other physical or developmental disabilities, parents with small
children or children with special needs, seniors or people with physical disabilities that make
walking for them difficult. Additionally, Meraki Total Health provides physical health care to a
lot of individuals that have intellectual and developmental disabilities and reside in group
care homes, which means they're coming to services. They're being brought by a staff member, by a
direct support professional in a large wheelchair accessible van. And those individuals right now
are having to drop off on the street. These are large vans. So even though there is a pull-up
area along the street, it's requiring individuals to be in the street to get out of the van to
maneuver the wheelchairs out of the van. And so that's impeding traffic and the safety of those
individuals. I think the best illustration is one of our early patients, a woman who was in her
mid-40s with hypertension, diabetes, kidney issues, has substance use issues and mental health issues
and is also an amputee because she was unable to get her diabetes care under control. She relies
on her family to be her caregivers as well as her transportation and so right now one of two
situations happens when she comes for care her her family pulls up to the front of the building
helps her get out helps her get into her wheelchair wheels her into the building as quickly as they
can and then tries to move their car so that they're not receiving a parking citation because
the parking in front of the building is paid parking and they try to move across the street
or they park across the street and then they are having to cross in Mount Airy Avenue, that busy
street, making their way across with her in the wheelchair to get her into the building.
So that's exposing them to those safety issues and also just additional stress and an already
stressful situation for her coming in for care. Frequently, the individuals that we see have not
had a lot of health care in the past or been able to access that care, which means she's coming in
regularly to keep her diabetes under control so that she can keep her other foot. Um, so she's
coming every month and her family is facing kind of that stress of getting her into the health
center, um, and making sure that's a safe and easy process for them. Can you provide for parking and
drop off and pick up at the Germantown Avenue parking site? And that's the Germantown Avenue
site there. Um, I think this is a, probably a good illustration. If you go to exhibit seven,
the floor plans i think um you can see the the main entrance so this is the first floor of the
building um at the bottom of the screen the steps there and that ramp that's the main entrance into
the building um this is an old building merrikey has been in the building providing services since
the passage of the community health center act in 1969 so we've been in this neighborhood a long
time in this building a long time um so the the first floor entryway main entryway into the
building is there on Mount Airy Avenue. And if you go to the next page, you can see the Germantown
lot, which is just around the corner, does have an entry into the building and does allow for
drop-off. However, that entrance, because of the elevation changes, is on the second floor.
So that requires patients that are in the Germantown Avenue would have to come in on that
second floor area. And why is that a problem? I think there's a few problems there. One,
the distance for patients. If you go to 10A for the photos, you can kind of see that elevation
change. So if we're asking patients to come outside, this is the Germantown lot. And there
you can start to see the pathway around. If you go to the next page and the next, I think that's
probably the best view of the elevation change that's looking out from the second floor courtyard
down in. So that's creating a distance for someone who's likely not in a wheelchair or
within a wheelchair or might have crutches, a cane, some other disability to walk that distance
and also taking into account weather and other situations. If we're asking individuals to enter
In the interior of the building, there's two challenges there. First, the building houses multiple programs. So the offices that you see around there on the second floor are mental health therapy offices. So there are concerns about having patients enter and come through therapy areas in the building. Concerns with patient privacy, having them enter, not in a lobby, in a main entrance of the building.
And second, safety issues. We like everybody to come in on the first floor, check in with security. We do not allow patients to walk around the building unescorted. The only areas they're able to be in the building unescorted are the main lobbies and the
The only areas they're able to be in the building unescorted are the main lobbies and the reception area for the physical health care services and mental health.
We don't want to leave patients in other areas of the building to wander through, and we don't want them coming through other areas where different students are taking place.
The letter from the East Bend area neighbors suggested Merrick Key could utilize an adjacent parking lot, and that's adjacent parking lot I'm pointing to on the screen.
does murky own that lot yeah does murky have a lease for that lot so without leasing or owning
that lot is there any way murky could utilize that lot for its parking no that lot is not part
of our property um have you looked into possibly utilizing a loading space on man area avenue
yes and we do currently use that right now um however there is um safety concerns as that
requires individuals to unload and enter the street whenever they're unloading from those
wheelchair bands. Additionally, that area is a metered area, and we have individuals that
have significant financial hardships. These are individuals on Medicaid. They're uninsured
individuals, so it may only be a few dollars to park there, but that is a significant impact
to the individuals that we serve.
So it's not really feasible to ask them to park
in that metered area.
And that's the metered area out front on the screen.
So that would be the drop-off area
that's currently being used that is metered
and causes the safety concerns at present.
How long have the homes on Man Area Avenue been vacant?
So the row homes, one side 31 has been vacant for 10 years.
The other side was used as offices.
and medical record storage up through the pandemic.
During the pandemic, the offices were not in use and up through,
but up through last year, the building was used for long-term record storage.
Why are these buildings vacant?
The buildings really are not suited for any clinical
or mental health delivery of services.
As I said, they were previously used for offices and more for storage.
The buildings are not suitable for medical use.
Did you look into renovating them?
We have to make the buildings ADA compliant and usable by patients with significant disabilities would require gutting the entire building.
It's not really financially viable to put an elevator in the building, and it's not cost effective to renovate at this time.
And how will this new parking lot improve Merrick's ability to serve the vulnerable populations it serves?
I think the lot that we are proposing, as Michael stated, is not a general parking lot. It's a parking lot where they'll have handicap accessible spaces and then spaces reserved for seniors, people with disabilities, mothers with small children, and parents.
So what we're trying to create for the individuals we serve is a place that is safe and accessible
and welcoming.
Our population faces significant obstacles to getting health care every day.
And right now, the parking situation is creating just another stress, another barrier to care
for individuals.
So having that parking lot is part of creating that safe and welcoming environment for the
people that we serve.
And what will happen to patient accessibility to your services if the parking lot is not approved?
We will continue to use street parking for unloading our wheelchairs.
We'll have patients crossing the street and continue with those safety issues and continue to have those barriers for that population that, you know, is constantly facing stigma and obstacles
and frequently feels unwelcome in the places where they're receiving care.
What will happen to the two structures on the lot if this application is denied?
We do currently have a demolition permit for those structures.
Right now, they are an attractive nuisance, so we will proceed with the demolition, and it will be an empty lot.
That's regardless of whether this gets approved.
And given the home, given the location of the homes directly adjacent to the murky facility and their lack of ADA accessibility, other than as a parking lot, is there any other use for those properties in question?
There is no other use. The cost to renovate the buildings, as I said, to make them ADA accessible is cost prohibitive. And so the lot would remain empty.
And what will happen if the parking lot is approved?
I think, as we said, this is a vulnerable population. Our goal is to put our patients
I think, as we said, this is the vulnerable population.
first to be responsive to their needs and their values and what they need to access the care that
they need. And so I think small things add up for patients that face that kind of stigma every day
and barriers and challenges and our patients deserve to have access to care in a place where
where they feel safe and welcome so that that's going away to creating that environment for our
individuals and did you hear my presentation at the board yes was it true and correct do you adopt
my statements as your testimony in addition to your own testimony yes i've no further questions
for this witness mr chairman what do you have all the two more two more witnesses why don't we bring
all your witnesses on and if there's any questions from the board they can ask okay
next is kyle dowdy right hello kyle kyle dowdy d-o-w-d-y right do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do this is the reporter pardon me could
i ask the witness to get closer to the microphone i'm having some difficulty hearing sorry about