boardname
PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD
Meeting Date: MARCH 27, 2024
title
AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTER (ASC) CODE AMENDMENT
projectinfo
Request: Special Medical Facilities Text Amendment for Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASC)
P&Z# 24-81000001
Owner: N/A
Project Location: N/A
Folio Number: N/A
Land Use Designation: N/A
Zoning District: N/A
Commission District: N/A
Agent: Matthew Scott (matthew.scott@gmlaw.com)
Project Planner: Jean Dolan (jean.dolan@copbfl.com / 954-786-4045)
otherinfo
Summary and Evaluation
The proposed code amendment is a very narrow amendment that will eliminate the 500 foot separation requirement from RS and RD districts for Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASC) under 5,000 square feet while retaining the unpermitted use status in B-1 and B-2 as well as the Special Exception status in B-3 Zoning Districts.
Medical and Dental offices of the same size are permitted uses in all of the business districts (B-1, B-2 and B-3) and are not subject to any separation requirements until they are over 5,000 square feet.
It is unlikely that ASC's would generate off-site impacts that would be different from any typical medical or dental office and, in fact, are likely to have fewer impacts due to having the capacity for fewer patients per day given the same size facility. The Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) does not have a traffic generation category for ASCs so medical/dental office trip generation rates would be used to estimate traffic impacts from such a use thereby supporting the assumptions that these uses are not unique enough to have warranted any specific research by the ITE in regard to traffic impacts.
Back in 2015 when the code amendment was adopted to regulate "Specialty Medical Facilities" which include ASCs, the urgent issue at the time was that 17 substance abuse facilities had located in Pompano between 2011 and 2015 and seven of those were in 2015 alone. That was at the height of the opioid epidemic and the related deaths linked...
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