Olympia Site Plan Review Committee hears proposal for new medical office building on McPhee Road 

A local development team is proposing to construct a new two-story, 40,000-square-foot medical office building on an undeveloped, forested site at 527 McPhee Road SW.  

The project was presented at the Olympia Site Plan Review Committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 5. A team from Rice Fergus Miller, a Bremerton-based architecture firm, outlined plans for the development to create a cohesive medical campus that serves the community.  

The proposed project includes a patient drop-off area at the front and a main pedestrian axis leading to a large plaza accessible from McPhee Road. It would also have a backup emergency generator and provisions for waste management services, which will be screened from public view.  

In Phase 1 of the development, the majority of the parking, a pedestrian plaza and landscaping would be constructed, along with a connection to the neighboring medical office parcel.  

The project team explained that the site is an L-shaped parcel located north of an existing medical campus. They were looking to create a complete campus with potential for future phases. 

The main challenge of the project was the 10-foot maximum setback from the street, which, according to the project team, was difficult due to the shape of the parcel.

They originally tried to meet the setback with the existing property lines, but found it hard to have proper access to the site. 

To address this, the project team started looking at making it more of a complete campus, with the potential for a future phase to the north.

This would allow them to connect to the existing campus and create a more functional site that could be expanded. 

Greg Belding, of the Rice Fergus Miller, noted that the 10-foot maximum setback makes the site hard to use.

The team is interested in exploring options to modify the requirement, while still meeting the zoning and design review standards.

They are proposing a new north-south street connection to the south. This would create a corner-lot condition and improve access while aligning with high-density corridor and pedestrian street overlay requirements. 

 Casey Mauck, Olympia's associate planner, explained that since the project will be constructing a new street to the north, the building can be oriented toward the street and considered a corner lot.

This means the building must be positioned closer to the frontage due to two key design codes: 

• The maximum 10-foot setback requirement.  

• The basic commercial design guidelines require that at least 50% of the frontage is abutted by the building. 

However, Mauck said, with more than 600 feet of frontage along the north-south street, meeting the 50% requirement may be difficult.

Mauck noted that while full compliance may not be feasible, the project could likely meet the intent of the design guideline, which the Design Review Board would then evaluate.  

Mauck added that under the HDC design criteria, the building must be oriented toward the street.

This means that regardless of where the main operational entrance is located — on the parking lot side — an entrance must be provided on the street-facing side.  

Mauck noted that the project meets most of the design requirements, except the front yard setback, which will require further review.  

Jasen Johns, Olympia's urban forester, noted the site is heavily forested, providing many opportunities for tree retention to meet the city's minimum tree density requirements. 

The minimum tree density requirement is 30 tree units per acre. Since this is a 4-acre development, 120 tree units need to be met. 

Johns explained that it is always better to retain existing trees rather than planting new ones, as the retained trees will count for more tree units.  

Johns also noted that the street trees installed as part of the frontage improvement along McPhee Road will not count toward the minimum tree density requirement for the site itself.