Geisinger Asks to Withdraw Plans for New College Township Clinic

Geisinger Health System has requested to withdraw plans for its proposed new primary care clinic on Scenery Drive in College Township.

In a Sept. 20 letter to the township, the health system said it is electing to cancel the project due to the hardships of the site.

The final land development plan for the 15,400-square-foot facility at the corner of Scenery Drive and South Atherton Street was approved by township council on May 20. Geisinger was in the process of finalizing stormwater easements, which had slowed down the recording of the plan.

During a council meeting on Oct. 6, Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said the technical issues with the project were something that could be overcome. Geisinger told him it is focusing on its many other projects that are currently underway that are over budget and off schedule.

Brumbaugh relayed to Geisinger that the township’s final land development plans are good for five years after they are recorded.

“If they were that close to getting one done, perhaps it would worthy of their consideration to finish that off and get it recorded and let the five-year clock run,” Brumbaugh said, adding that he told a representative of Geisinger this just two weeks ago.

He has yet to hear back on the matter.

The township accepted the correspondence from Geisinger and will keep the plan open until it expires.

The facility was planned for an empty lot across Scenery Drive from Geisinger’s existing Scenery Park complex. Primary care practices were to be relocated from the existing complex to the new one-story building, while specialty practices were to be expanded in the current Scenery Park facility.

In May, Matthew Nussbaum, Geisinger vice president of medicine, said, “We’ve kind of outgrown our space at Scenery Park and so as a way to find more room for our growing clinical program — we’ve owned this property for quite a while and now we’re looking to develop it to relocate primary care, some lab services and X-ray. Then the plan will be to backfill some of our specialties that are growing at Scenery Park.”

That plan appears to be at least temporarily on hold.

Geisinger has owned the property where the new building was planned since 1994, according to county records. It acquired the site of the existing Scenery Park complex in 1989.