Geisinger Community Medical Center 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 on 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, according to the conceptual plan presented Tuesday during a council caucus.
Council will hold a public hearing next Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall on a zoning amendment proposed by Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti to accommodate the GCMC expansion plan. Then, at the regular council meeting to follow at 6:30 p.m., council will take a third and final vote on whether to adopt the rezoning legislation.
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 takes 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 month, Nicholas Coleman, associate vice president of clinical operations of Geisinger’s Northeast Region, indicated the current zoning limit of 45 feet would not suffice for expansion, but GCMC also well knows neighbors adamantly oppose 100-foot-tall structures; and so GCMC intends an expansion height between 45 and 100 feet.
Community members gather at city hall to listen to the caucus between Geisinger and Scranton city council on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
At Tuesday’s caucus, Coleman and Megan Brosious, who is Geisinger’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, along with John Hajduk, associate vice president of facilities operations, presented a concept plan for a five-story, 75-foot-tall building and a parking garage for the 400 block of Colfax Avenue.
Brosious recounted the millions of dollars Geisinger has invested into improving operations and facilities in the existing hospital since the 45-foot-height limit imposed in 2023 scuttled prior expansion plans for the Colfax properties.
“We are now out of capacity within the four walls of the hospital proper,” Brosius said. “And so the only thing that we can do now is expand.”
GCMC has no intent to build as high as 100 feet, and “we have made it as small as we possibly can,” Brosious said of a new building and parking garage. GCMC also currently has no plans for its property in the 200 block of Colfax Avenue, she said.
The hospital’s existing visitor and staff parking garages each have about 415 spaces, and GCMC also has 400 spaces in a surface lot in Nay Aug Park. Those 1,200 parking spaces would remain in use, along with a new parking garage in the 400 block of Colfax Avenue and its 400 spaces, the Geisinger officials said.
Geisinger’s executive vice president and chief operating officer answers questions from city council members during the caucus at Scranton City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
An expansion project would take about 18-24 months to complete, and the hospital also would add over 120 positions across all departments, Brosious said.
Rothchild said, “This sounds like more of a reasonable plan than I think what was presented to us a couple years ago, which was definitely difficult to swallow with what was being asked of the neighbors and the community.”
Brosious said, “We have a lot of ground to cover to regain trust. We know that.”
But the expansion is necessary because of a potential looming crisis of a major health care need in the city, county and beyond, and that people are looking for Geisinger to help solve, Brosious said.
Schuster and McAndrew asked why GCMC hasn’t instead sought a variance from the city Zoning Board, instead of the mayor seeking council approval for a zoning amendment. GCMC would not meet the criteria for a variance on the Colfax properties, Brosious said.
“It looks like special treatment,” McAndrew said of the GCMC rezoning. “I’m just not happy with this whole process and how it happened and how quick it happened.”
City council vice president Mark McAndrew ask Geisinger officials questions during the caucus at Scranton City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Brosious said that if the rezoning is passed, GCMC would still have to go through all of the otherwise normal procedural processes that would follow for the project.
Rothchild asked about a worst-case scenario if the GCMC rezoning does not pass and a plan for Tenor Health Foundation to acquire Regional Hospital and Moses Taylor in Scranton does not come to fruition.
Coleman said GCMC would have to erect “alternative care sites” in the 400 block of Colfax Avenue that would resemble triage “military style hospitals. … This is a very real concern that we have,” Coleman said. “This would be a regional crisis, not just in Scranton, this would also impact some northern counties and also Luzerne County.”
King asked if the city can trust that GCMC would not go above a 75-foot height of a building and parking garage, and Hajduk and Coleman both replied yes.
Smurl said the 45-foot height limit on the Colfax properties imposed in 2023 adversely singled out Geisinger and he believes it would not have withstood a legal challenge.
“We basically took two lots and we made them a special zone, which is basically spot zoning,” Smurl said. “I don’t know why you didn’t take it to court back then, because I don’t see a loss there (for Geisinger). But here we are today, so hopefully we can move forward and get this finished and get a compromise and get it done.”
Resident Eugene Barrett said neighbors are not obstructionists or against health care, and the traffic at the hospital already is “bedlam.” A GCMC expansion adding more services and employees, along with city improvements underway at Nay Aug Park bringing more people there, will only make traffic worse.
“All we want is fair treatment. Nothing more, nothing less,” Barrett said.
The Geisinger officials acknowledged that traffic flow at the hospital needs improvement.
Lackawanna College General Counsel Jamie Hailstone expressed college support for the GCMC rezoning.
“Lackawanna College recognizes that this particular zoning change is about progress. It’s about changing the landscape of medical care in our communtiy and we are desperate for it,” Hailstone said. “And employers look for it. People moving to the area look for these kinds of things. The college supports it 100% because the college believes this is about progress. This is about moving forward.”