Trees behind Safeway in Covington to be cleared to make way for Valley Medical Center construction

Trees behind Safeway in Covington will be cleared in the coming week to make way for construction of Valley Medical Center’s medical plaza.

“We just want people to know that tree cutting will be taking place,” said Richard Hart, Covington’s Community Development Director. “They do have all their permits. We’ve gone through the SEPA review.It is legal for them to be cutting down those trees.”

Hart noted that the trees are not the healthiest based on analysis by arborists, who are experts on the topic.

“They have all their permits, they’ve been in for their engineering reviews,” said Salina Lyons, Covington’s senior planner on Dec. 1.

“We met with them last week to discuss their site work and tree cutting. They did go through the tree preservation study review… and about 90 percent of those trees did have root rot.”

And because of the tree preservation ordinance requirements, Valley will replace many of the trees that will be cleared to make room for the footprint of the building, Hart and Lyons explained.

“They will probably begin construction on the building … in February or March,” Hart said.

Valley Medical has planned a two phase project on 10 acres of the downtown area know as town center. The hospital paid $5 million for the land.

The first phase of the project will include a 24-hour free standing emergency department, specialty offices, public parking, a plaza, green space and gathering places, according to a report made by Mike Glenn, Valley’s senior vice president of business development, to the Covington City Council in late May.

Construction costs for the first phase were tagged at about $21 million at that time.

Phase two would include medical and legal office space as well as retail shops, with a price tag of $21 million, with both phases bringing more than 100 full time jobs when it’s all done.