CHAPTER 5
Design of the Floor Plan in an Urgent Care Center
Rajiv Kapadia
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MANY URGENT CARE CENTERS are located in an existing building, either new or previously occupied by another tenant. In such a shell space, a building interior that is left unfinished, you will need to make tenant improvements (TIs), or customizations of the space to suit your center’s needs.
In the majority of cases, an architect is brought on board after site selection is complete, and often after the lease has been signed. However, it is still a good idea to cross the following items off your checklist of issues to resolve before embarking on the design phase:
Site zoning and building use
Parking
Available utilities
Putting off dealing with some of them could mean the difference between an on-time opening and a months-long delay—or even abandoning a particular site altogether.
Real property in incorporated localities is usually subject to a land-use plan, approved and adopted by the governing jurisdiction. In most instances this is the city or county in which the property is located. The land-use plan is divided into various zones, usually designated by a letter code, a number code, or both, and is described in the zoning ordinance or a similar instrument. Check the zoning for your proposed site against the list of approved uses for that zone to verify that urgent care centers are allowed.
In some instances, an urgent care center may not be an allowed use of a zone, but this may sometimes be remedied by securing a special-use permit, waiver, or similar instrument. This usually entails a separate application process with the city and could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks or even months. If that process is not successful, the property may need to be rezoned, which is usually a fairly involved process requiring the services of other professionals such as attorneys, surveyors, and civil engineers, as well as a substantial time investment. If this is not a viable option, then it may be time to consider an alternative site for the center.
If the project site is part of a group of commercial establishments and subject to the conditions, covenants, and [deed] restrictions administered by the equivalent of an owner’s association or property management agency, then the proposed urgent care center should be verified as allowable, or approvable after due process.
Many jurisdictions will not allow a particular use, even though it is otherwise allowed by the zoning ordinance, unless proof of adequate available parking can be demonstrated. Although many cities do not even question this, others will not budge on this requirement. The required minimum, and in some cases maximum, allowable parking for each type of use is usually described in the zoning ordinance, parking regulations, or other similar adopted instruments. In some existing (previously tenanted) spaces, the city may agree to limited waivers or creative agreements such as cross-parking easements or time-shared parking agreements in lieu of actual on-site parking count. Certain cities do not review for parking adequacy until after building plans have been approved by other departments, by which time the applicant may have already devoted substantial resources to a location, thus resulting in undue hardship.