The Scranton Zoning Board on Wednesday will hear the Wright Center for Community Health’s plans to build a $5 million health center in North Scranton to replace its existing one on North Main Avenue.
The board initially was scheduled to hear the application last month, but that meeting was postponed because of a snowstorm. Now, the Wright Center application is on the board’s agenda for its monthly meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall, according to public notices published Jan. 6 and Jan. 7 in The Times-Tribune.
A new building at 1727-1729 N. Main Ave. would go next to the Wright Center for Community Health North Scranton that opened in July 2023 health center at 1721 N. Main Ave. Previously, for decades that building had been the office of Dr. Paul Remick. When he retired, the Wright Center began offering primary and preventive care at that location.
In February, the Wright Center bought an apartment building next door at 1727-1729 N. Main St. for expansion, to better serve a growing demand for health care, provide more parking for patients and staff, and make infrastructure improvements. Plans calls for construction of a nearly 8,000-square-foot, two-story building that offers primary and behavioral health care and dental services. The building would have 10 exam rooms on the first floor and four dental treatment rooms and four behavioral health treatment rooms on the second floor, as well as space for lab services. The current clinic would be demolished for parking space after construction of a new center next door is completed.
Zoning variances sought include: impervious coverage to be increased from the allowed 70% to 79%; parking spaces to be reduced from the required 68 to 34; curb-to-shrub distance reduced from 3 feet to 1 foot; landscape buffer along the public right of way reduced from 3 feet to 1 foot; and landscape buffer next to residential districts reduced from 10 feet to 5 feet.