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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVHA VVMC MP Issue PEC 102714 FinalPECVAIL HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. To: TOV/Planning & Environment Commission/Town Council From: Jim Lamont, Executive Director RE: VVMC Master Plan Issues - 10/27/14 Please review: The VVMC Master Plan proposed to relocate of the community emergency heliport. The existing heliport is located at ground level on the western edge of the TOV municipal building complex. The Vail Valley Medical Center (VVMC) is proposing to relocate and transfer to VVMC control the existing Town controlled heliport to the north side of their (VVMC) campus on the roof of a 75 foot high medical building. Both sites are immediately adjacent to the South Frontage Road. It appears that the heliport relocation to the VVMC site will increase the negative consequences from public safety hazards, environmental factors and property rights upon built -up areas, including residences, offices, hotels and schools. These uses are factors that the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) takes into consideration in approving helipads. The potential impact upon adjacent and effected properties include public safety events such as a crash, property right limitations via zoning restrictions to maintain obstruction free flight paths as well as quality -of -life environmental degradation from operational noise and the like. • An extrapolation from the VVMC consultant documentation and an independent consultant report prepared for adjacent property owners indicates that leaving the heliport in its present location would have far fewer negative community and neighborhood impacts. • The current heliport location reduces the potential for disruption to daily and emergency conditions to proposed South Frontage Road traffic improvements that would expedite vehicular and pedestrian access including proposed increases in development density on the Evergreen Hotel, VVMC and TOV Municipal Complex sites. • The absence of weather record sufficient to document the localized effects of high altitude and associated episodes of extreme weather conditions, such as microbursts, which are commonplace in narrow mountain valleys, increase the potential of vulnerability to aircraft performance necessitating an increased margin of error, which puts greater emphasis on maintaining the existing helipad. • The same level of detailed analysis by a qualified independent helipad design consultant needs to be done for the existing site located on Colorado Department of Highways (CDOT) land just west of the TOV municipal building site. • It is noted that both the TOV and CDOT have administrative, regulatory and public finance authority over the existing helipad site which they exercise in the protection of the greater public good. They would have far less authority over the VVMC campus location. All parties are sensitive and sympathetic to the emergency care needs of individual VVMC patients. As the size and capacity of the VVMC grows, it can be expected that demand for emergency air transport will likewise increase. The proper investment in supportive infrastructure by both public and private entities can closely approximate the desired transfer time and conditions (by gurney) between the proposed VVMC campus and the existing heliport site. The "greater public good" for the community's public safety, quality of life and property protections should be given higher consideration especially when public and private infrastructure investment can reduce current transfer times and conditions for emergency helicopter transport patients to a near negligible difference from the current heliport.