It is one more step along the way. Coweta County Commission Sept. 11 unanimously approved a Special Use Permit request by Piedmont Newnan Hospital for the installation of a heliport adjacent to the new hospital that was approved for construction in the spring.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires heliports to be located in close proximity to a hospital’s emergency entrance. The heliport was approved for a location that is 130 feet from the emergency room entrance.

The request got unanimous approval subject to the conditions that the heliport be at least 200 feet from all property lines, the final approach/take off zone will incorporate the I-85 corridor, that the permit allow for only one helicopter on hospital property and that the proposal obtain FAA approval.

The hospital will be located on the east side of I-85 and Poplar Road within the Poplar Road Quality Development Corridor Overlay District. The property has more than 2,500 feet of frontage along Poplar Road.

Once fully completed in 2020, the hospital complex will include a nine-story, 800,000 square-foot hospital with two bed towers, two medical office buildings at 125,000 square feet each, two parking decks at 245,000 square feet and 166,250 square feet and a central energy plant at 30,000 square feet.

Hospital construction will come in two phases. The first phase will include the first portion of the nine-story hospital at 360,000 square feet and one of the medical office buildings. The second phase, with full build-out anticipated in 2020, will include the completion of the second nine-story section of the hospital that will join the first phase and completion of the second medical office building. Plans call for a total of approximately 2,250 surface and deck parking spaces.

The 136-bed hospital will have 14 post-partum beds, 18 critical care beds and 104 general medical/surgical patient beds. The facility also will feature eight operating rooms and 23 patient rooms in the Emergency Department.

The hospital will utilize sustainable building strategies such as energy efficiencies and water reuse and conservation technologies in an effort to reduce future operating costs, provide a healthier work environment, and reduce the overall environmental impact of the project, according to hospital reports. It has been designed to comply with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

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