Summit Zoning Board Denies Helipad Application

Just days shy of the one year anniversary of the beginning of hearings on Overlook Hospital's application to build a helipad on the roof of the C-wing, the application was denied in a 6-1 vote Monday night.

"We're very disappointed in the outcome," said Overlook Hospital President Alan Leiber by phone after the meeting, adding he could not comment on the possibility of an appeal to Union County Superior Court at this time.

After more than 3,000 pages of transcripts and testimony from expert witnesses on everything from real estate values to acoustical impacts, the Board ruled helipads are not accessory uses to hospitals. It then decided that while the majority did not feel the helipad is an inherently beneficial use, it would be best to proceed as if it were in case of an appeal. Zoning Board attorney Dennis Galvin said by approaching the vote in this way it would eliminate one argument the hospital could make before the courts on an appeal.

The board voted 6-1 to deny the application. Sandy Bloom was the lone member who was in favor of the application.

In attendance Monday was Morristown resident Margaret Brady who previously testified about her experiences living with frequent helicopter flights.

"At one this morning I thought of my friends in Summit when the helicopter woke me up. I fell back to sleep and then at 2 a.m. another helicopter woke me up and I thought about the residents again," she said. "It was rewarding in a way to hear the attorney say, 'of the thousands of flights that fly in and out of Morristown Memorial,' it was the first time the hospital acknowledged that there had been thousands of flights."

Mary Higgins, a resident of Oak Ridge Avenue, said she has five boys and one of her main concerns was safety as a result of the electromagnetic waves being emitted from the antennas on the roof of the hospital.

"I think that justice has been served here," she said. "As far as getting the facts of the matter."

Zoning board members said they felt a helipad was an incidental use to a hospital it was not customary for all hospitals to have them. Board members cited previous testimony that it is not a state requirement that in order to be a Comprehensive Stroke Center, which Overlook is, one must have a helipad and that of the 11 comprehensive stroke centers the nine that have helipads are also either a trauma center or the state burn center.

The board then turned to a debate about whether or not to consider the helipad as an inherently beneficial use.

Zoning Board Chair George MacLean provided an overview of the 65 stroke patients flown to Overlook Hospital in 2009. Of them, zero were Summit residents and only four received intervention through the Merci device.

Board members weren't certain conditions proposed by Overlook to limit the number of flights, flight path, type of aircraft used and other details of the operation would be enforceable after approval.

Prior to the meeting, Galvin issued a memo that detailed his opinion that the zoning officials in Summit would be "pre-empted from enforcing any condition regarding the flight path, number of flights or noise generated from the use of the helipad; and that if the applicant or its successors should choose to abandon its promises contained in the proposed conditions, they can do so at will."

"On behalf of my patients I'm very disappointed and we'll have to figure out how we can do the best for our patients," said Dr. John Halperin, medical director of the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute and chair of the Department of Neurosciences.

But ultimately, the zoning board did what Jay Delaney, representing two of the residents opposed to the application, asked them to do in his closing statement.

"We're at a crossroads here. The one road you can go down is to say we will let history repeat itself and vote for this application and have all the problems that they have in Morristown," he said. "Or we can learn from history. ... I beg you, I beseech, don't let history repeat itself. Don't let what goes on in Morristown, go on here."

-Maggy Patrick contributed to the report.