Preliminary Discussions with City of Watertown Planning Board

Published on: April 28, 2023

We are aware of the recent news that Samaritan provided a proposal to the City of Watertown Planning Board with the preliminary idea to construct a new building on our property. However, there is some confusion on this process.

Samaritan is consistently looking to meet our patients’ and the community’s healthcare needs, and oftentimes this can lead to new construction and renovation of existing space. Adequate space is often a challenge at healthcare facilities.

At this time, Samaritan is proactively bringing construction ideas and questions to the City of Watertown Planning Board as there are new City zoning changes that we need to navigate together. The goal is to understand the zoning changes and how it impacts any possible new construction for the Medical Center.

That being said, Samaritan is only in the investigative stage of potentially constructing a new building near the main hospital. These are preliminary discussions and there is no official Certificate of Need (CON) submitted to the NYS Department of Health (DOH) or Samaritan Medical Center Board approval at this time.

Samaritan is pulling our submission from the City of Watertown Planning Board because our intent was to have a conversation about future plans, not seek approval for a new building. We simply wanted feedback and we did receive very valuable feedback. However, there was some miscommunication on both ends. We did not anticipate seeking any approval from the City at this time.

Once there are more permanent plans, Samaritan and our construction teams will go back to the Planning Board and let the community know of our future plans.