Planning commission approves revised elevations and monument sign for Fort Mountain Drive Medical Center at 404 Malcolm

The Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday approved revised exterior elevations and a new monument sign for the Fort Mountain Drive Medical Center site development plan at 404 Malcolm, concluding a review of materials and minor clarifications on installation and access.

Commissioner Dan Hoff moved that the commission "approve the revised elevations, including the monument sign, that had been provided as part of the July 16, 2026 staff report and as further clarified for the record during the meeting, and subject to the additional fine tuning that you all were talking about." The motion carried after a second and a vote in favor, the chair announced.

Why it mattered: the commission had left elevations unresolved at an earlier meeting and required changes to make the project comply with the city's design-preference guidance on material variety, roof heights and facade treatment. Andrea Gerhard, senior planner, told the commission the project consists of two buildings — a 22,000-square-foot medical office and a 12,000-square-foot school — and that the applicant submitted revised renderings intended to address those earlier conditions.

During a focused technical exchange, an unnamed architect explained the primary cladding is a brick veneer applied to precast concrete panels. "It ranges from a half inch thick to an inch thick, and it is applied on top of the concrete panel with an adhesive," the architect said, describing the thin-brick installation and mortar joint finish. Commissioners sought and received clarification that labeled materials M2, M4 and M5 were brick veneer (not false paneling), that the "vintage wood" look is achieved with a metal panel system attached to back strips, and that textured finishes are applied over a primer on concrete panels.

Applicant representative Brian Eberly said the chosen concrete-panel construction is cost- and time-efficient, offers a largely open interior plan and let the team apply skins intended to match nearby development. "We are trying to start in the next 30 days if we can because we have a tenant who wants to be in by next fall," Eberly said, adding the developer plans to build both buildings concurrently and already has a tenant lined up for the 12,000-square-foot building.

On site access and approvals, staff said the project previously provided traffic-impact analysis to the county and State Highway, and that the State Highway had approved an access permit; the project also awaited final signature-set processing and county fire approvals. The commission discussed a potential cross-access connection to an adjacent parcel and was told there is a cross-access agreement in place or under consideration, and that topography in earlier reviews limited certain connection options.

What the approval covers: the vote approved the revised elevations and the monument sign as presented in the July 16, 2026 staff report, subject to the fine-tuning the commission discussed during the meeting. The staff report and the commission record will govern the final signature set and subsequent building-permit steps.

The commission moved on to a brief county liaison update and then adjourned. The developer and design team said they would finalize the signature set and coordinate remaining county and fire approvals before construction.