Bellaire and Methodist Hospital officials are back at the discussion table with a revised design on the proposed medical office in the city’s downtown commercial corridor.

    Current situation

    On Sept. 28, Bellaire City Council and the city’s planing and zoning commission held a joint special session workshop. According to the agenda documents, the size of the planned development is still a 3.19-acre site. Changes to the revised conceptual design included:

    • Integrating retail into the same building rather than separate buildings
    • Increasing the amount of retail available to 15,000 square feet
    • Adding more surface parking that is similar to other Bellaire developments
    • Increasing the amount of underground parking to maintain a lower height of the building
    • Decreasing the amount of clinic space

    Both parties focused on discussion topics that included traffic flow, street setbacks and the proportion of retail/restaurants to medical.

    How we got here

    In September 2022, Page Southerland Page Inc. on behalf of Methodist Hospital presented to the planning and zoning commission a preliminary presentation of the development.

    • The previous proposed project was three one-story retail buildings, and a three-story medical office building with an attached two-story parking garage on the approximately 3.19-acre site.
    • The Bellaire Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3-2 in favor of the project in April.
    • A public hearing took place June 5.
    • The Methodist application was up for a City Council vote on the July 18 agenda.
    • Bellaire City Council voted unanimously to postpone making a decision on the developer’s application July 18.

    Going forward

    The next steps in the process, according to agenda documents, are for Methodist Hospital officials to submit a new application or provide an amendment to the previous application.

    From there, Bellaire’s Development Services Department would review the application and determine whether further public hearings would be required according to state law.

    What could be different in the application process this time around versus the last time, would be that a joint public hearing could be held before both governmental bodies, instead of hosting the public hearings as individual entities. If that is decided by city officials, it would streamline the process for the vote to go to City Council.