City to rule on Methodist Hospital expansion

UPDATED 3 p.m., June 18: The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals is expected to vote today on the Methodist Hospital’s zoning variance for a proposed 500,000-square-foot expansion of the medical facility’s current location.

Executives at the Park Slope hospital want to build an ambulatory care center that could be up to 152 feet tall. Residents who oppose the plan fear that the expansion’s height and scope — the center would take up an entire block — would alter the low-rise character of the neighborhood. An underground parking lot would hold between 800 and 1,000 vehicles.

More than a dozen townhouse-style buildings between Fifth and Sixth streets and Seventh and Eighth avenues will have to be demolished to make way for the center, should the variance be approved.

The ambulatory care facility, which will be connected to the hospital, would house a surgical center with 12 operating rooms, an endoscopy suite, a cancer center and an after-hours urgent care unit.

Brooklyn’s Community Board 6 approved the variances for the expansion in January. Plans for the proposed new center have changed a number of times so far. [Brooklyn Eagle] — Claire Moses

Correction: a prior version of this article incorrectly stated the amount of square footage of the proposed expansion.