SCRANTON — A judge on Tuesday denied a Scranton resident’s injunction lawsuit to delay city council from voting tonight on rezoning property of Geisinger Community Medical Center that will accommodate the hospital’s expansion.
Lackawanna County President Judge James Gibbons ruled that he did not have jurisdiction to prevent a legislative act of Scranton City Council. Law provides that the remedy for an aggrieved party to challenge such an action would come afterward, via an appeal of the action to county court, the judge determined.
“I just don’t think I have jurisdiction on this,” Gibbons said.
Hill Section resident Edmund Scacchitti filed the lawsuit injunction Friday to delay council from voting tonight on whether to rezone GCMC property on Colfax Avenue eyed for construction of a five-story, 75-foot-tall building and parking garage in the 400 block.
Scacchitti sought a court-ordered delay in council’s vote expected to come at its meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall on whether to adopt a rezoning ordinance. Many residents of the Hill neighborhood oppose the rezoning and believe it has been rushed through by Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti.
Attorney Ryan Barrett, representing Scacchitti, argued for a 30-day stay on council action to give more time for “informed public discourse” on the rezoning issue, after which council then would vote.
“The community was caught off guard,” by the rezoning proposal, Barrett said.
Scacchitti’s suit also raised issues of whether the city properly notified residents about the rezoning. Attorney Jenna Kraycer Tuzze, representing the city, argued that the city followed the municipal planning code law in the rezoning process.
“The city has fully complied with all of the procedural requirements,” Tuzze said.
The court also cannot prevent a legislative act of council beforehand, meaning the court does not have jurisdiction in the matter at this point, and a legal challenge could only come in the form of an appeal to the county court after a vote is taken, Tuzze said.
In rendering his decision, Gibbons agreed and said, “I guess we’ll have to see what will happen a couple of hours from now” when council votes on the rezoning.
First, council will hold a public hearing tonight at 5:45 p.m. on the proposed rezoning ordinance.
Geisinger plans to construct a five-story, 75-foot-tall clinical building and parking garage in the 400 block of Colfax Avenue, officials told Scranton City Council last Tuesday. A bridge over Mulberry Street would connect the “inpatient addition” on the site of the former Audubon school to the existing hospital; while a five-story garage with 400 parking spaces would go next to the addition, closer to Vine Street. The rezoning would change Geisinger-owned property on the odd side of the 200 block of Colfax Avenue and the even side of the 400 block of Colfax Avenue that includes the site of the former John J. Audubon Elementary School, from institutional to civic zones. The institutional zone has the 45-foot height limit imposed by council in 2023, while a civic zone has a 100-foot limit.
Previously, council voted 4-1 on Nov. 13 to introduce the rezoning ordinance and then voted 4-1 on Nov. 18 to advance it on a second reading, with council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew and Jessica Rothchild all in favor, and Tom Schuster casting the lone dissent, both times.
Schuster and McAndrew have questioned the timing of the mayor’s rezoning proposal, with McAndrew having called the mayor’s rezoning a “rush job” before a council with two new members taking over in January.
Hospital neighbors in the Hill Section have expressed concerns about GCMC expansion structures reaching up to the 100 feet tall that would be allowed under a rezoning. Last week, Geisinger officials presented a concept plan for a five-story, 75-foot-tall building and a parking garage for the 400 block of Colfax Avenue. A 45-foot heigh limit would not allow for a building and garage of sufficient size, but they know the neighbors do not want to see 100-foot tall structures, they said. GCMC currently has no plans for its property in the 200 block of Colfax Avenue, they said.