Meeting set for June 26 to discuss reuse of former St. Luke’s campus of MVHS

UTICA, N.Y. — The third community meeting for the redevelopment master plan regarding the former St. Luke’s Hospital Campus is set for Wednesday, June 26 at the MVHS Center for Rehabilitation and Continuing Care Services, 1650 Champlin Ave., Utica. The community visioning workshop will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Soggs Room. The event is hosted by Oneida County, Mohawk Valley EDGE, Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS), and the town of New Hartford. “Public participation in these forums has been great,” Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. said in a news release announcing the meeting. “We continue to receive extensive input and valuable feedback, and we want to see that momentum carry through to June 26. Having the public engage in this process is imperative to the future success of the site.” Fu Wilmers Design, the firm selected to lead the master-plan effort, will be present to engage with the public. The meeting will give attendees the opportunity to review project research and site analyses conducted to date and help shape conceptual site-plan ideas emerging from the research and public input. Organizers will also share a summary of the extensive responses received through the online Reimaging St. Luke’s visual preferences survey, which is still open and can be taken at www.surveymonkey.com/r/StLukesVisualSurvey. The project partners held the first public-engagement meeting in February to introduce the project, identify challenges, craft a community vision, generate site alternatives, and help shape the overall campus reuse strategy. The meetings will conclude in September. An advisory group comprised of community leaders, representatives from surrounding neighborhoods, community-service organizations, faith- based groups, small-business owners, housing organizations, and real-estate developers met prior to public meetings to provide input on the challenges and potential for the site as the project is developed. A total of four advisory group and four community visioning workshops are planned. There will be three different concepts produced from the master-plan study. A facilities study for the former hospital site, commissioned by the county, New Hartford, Mohawk Valley EDGE, and MVHS, runs concurrent with the master-plan study. Weston & Sampson is heading that study, which began last November and will help inform the master plan by looking at the present physical conditions of the facility and determining what portions of St. Luke’s can be reused or are not suitable for reuse. Mohawk Valley EDGE is administering the contracts with the consultants on both projects while Oneida County provides the funding. More information about the project is available at www.reimaginestlukes.com. The St. Luke’s Hospital closed last October when MVHS moved its operations to the new Wynn Hospital in downtown Utica.