Westminster planners recommend Kaiser Permanente medical office replacement

Westminster’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended Aug. 11 that City Council approve Kaiser Permanente’s plan to replace its medical office at 11245 Huron St. with a three-story, 135,875-square-foot outpatient facility.

The project would expand urgent-care and ambulatory-surgery services and replace the existing roughly 96,680-square-foot medical office building. Kaiser representatives told commissioners they hope to begin construction by the end of 2026 and open the facility in the third quarter of 2028, but those are applicant projections.

The recommendation is not final approval. City Council must decide on the comprehensive-plan and preliminary-development-plan amendments. As of Aug. 12, Westminster’s public notices and proceedings records showed no scheduled Council hearing or approval for Kaiser North.

Access and infrastructure

The redevelopment would cover about 16.35 acres at the northwest corner of West 112th Avenue and Huron Street. Its 7.5-acre southern parcel would be redesignated from Commercial to Neighborhood Office, where medical facilities are a primary use.

The plan would retain existing access points and add a West 112th Avenue driveway with a dedicated right-turn lane for westbound traffic. The applicant’s traffic study found that initial project phases would have a nominal or not-appreciable effect on circulation. City staff said the proposed access locations meet city standards.

The preliminary development plan requires Kaiser to replace more than 685 linear feet of 16-inch water main along West 112th Avenue and more than 1,015 linear feet along Huron Street. It also calls for dedicating 25 feet for a future north-south Santa Fe Drive right of way, though the city has no current plan to build that road.

The plan includes a $34,180 cash-in-lieu public-art payment and identifies a West 112th Avenue roadway-improvement recovery cost of $212,044.71 plus interest. The city’s Kaiser North development materials say the water-main work and other infrastructure provisions would bind successors and assigns.

Remaining review

The redevelopment would include a pedestrian and trail connection to Ranch Creek Open Space and the regional trail network, along with shaded seating, native and low-water plantings, pollinator gardens, interpretive signage and a food forest. An eight-foot decorative or masonry wall would screen the service yard from nearby residential property.

The project also includes an onsite stormwater detention pond and undergrounding of an irrigation-ditch lateral connected to the Farmers’ High Line Canal. Staff found that the plan amendment would not negatively affect drainage, but the record reviewed did not include completed detailed drainage calculations or site-specific stormwater review.

Final site design, building elevations, landscaping quantities, utility and easement details, environmental mitigation and other conditions remain subject to a later Official Development Plan review and permitting process. The record also does not establish whether left turns at the new 112th Avenue driveway would be prohibited, an issue raised in public correspondence.

Project materials identify potentially suitable habitat for monarch butterflies, Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bees, burrowing owls and migratory birds. Proposed protections include seasonal nesting surveys and construction buffers. Public correspondence also raised concerns about congestion, drainage, construction impacts, noise and an existing prairie-dog colony. City staff said Colorado Parks and Wildlife would govern prairie-dog relocation on the privately owned property and that Kaiser’s authorization would be required.

The official meeting recording shows commissioners voting unanimously to recommend approval of both amendments. The recommendation now awaits City Council action; only after that decision could the redevelopment proceed to subsequent approval and permitting steps.