The mayor of Atlanta is looking to extend the city’s redevelopment ban on the shuttered Atlanta Medical Center through April 2024, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Oct. 6.
If the Atlanta City Council approves the extension, it will be the third ban placed by Mayor Andre Dickens to prevent redevelopment of the 460-bed hospital site. Owner Wellstar Health System will have another six-month hiatus with the property; Atlanta Medical Center closed Nov. 1, 2022.
Under the ban, Atlanta’s planning department must refuse any applications for rezoning, building permits, land disturbances, special administrative permits, subdivisions, or other land changes for 15 parcels of land that were part of the AMC campus.
City leaders have said that the ban gives the community more time to address the hospital’s sudden sudden closure. Wellstar’s hospital closure plans were first reported Aug. 31, 2022, with the news eliciting surprise and backlash from community members, politicians and AMC employees.
Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar had operated Atlanta Medical Center since 2016. It attributed the closure to AMC’s finances and infrastructure, noting it lost $107 million the year prior, and said closure was decided on after an “exhaustive search” for partners.
The mayor’s executive order to extend the ban will stay in effect until the City Council votes on the measure; the next council meeting is Oct. 16, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
