Lancaster General Health hopes to extend its reach to a third city block by building an office building and its third parking garage on the former Lancaster YMCA property.

The health care organization has applied for a rezoning of the property, which will be announced tonight at a City Council meeting.

Lancaster General's plans are for the former YMCA properties in the 500 blocks of North Queen and North Prince streets, adjacent tracts separated by Market Street.

The organization would like to build an administrative office building for about 500 of its employees on the tract where the Y's main building was located in the 500 block of North Queen Street. The building could be as large as 200,000 square feet, an official said.

Lancaster General also would like to build a garage of between 300 and 500 spaces in the 500 block of North Prince Street, where the Y's wellness and youth center was located. The garage would serve the employees in the administrative office building.

If approvals are received, work on the site could begin by this fall and be completed by the summer of 2014, Lancaster General spokesman John Lines said.

The first step in the process is asking the city to rezone the properties from residential to "hospital complex," which is the zoning of the current Lancaster General Hospital, two parking garages and nearby buildings along the 500 blocks of North Duke and North Queen streets.

The public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposal at public meetings to be held before the rezoning goes to a vote by City Council, likely in March.

Lancaster General purchased the 1.8-acre YMCA property for $4.9 million in 2005. The Y had occupied the Queen Street building since 1967, expanding it into the adjacent property along Prince Street in the mid-1980s.

The two YMCA buildings have been vacant since September 2009, when the Y moved to a new building on Harrisburg Avenue.

If the zoning approvals are received, those buildings would be demolished to make room for the new office building and garage.

The new office building would be in the footprint of the Y's former main building, Lines said. The new Lancaster General building would house offices for information services, financial and human resources employees, as well as those in the Lancaster General Medical Group.

Many of those workers now are housed in space that Lancaster General leases at the Burle Business Park along New Holland Avenue or in buildings Lancaster General owns near its Duke Street hospital.

If the rezoning is approved, the office building could be built as high as 75 feet, about the height of a seven-story building. Lines said that Lancaster General has not made any decisions on the building's exact dimensions, pending the rezoning decision.

The parking garage would be built where the Prince Street Y building now stands. It would be accessed via Prince  Street and Market Street.

The size of the garage will depend on the size of the office building.

This would be Lancaster General's third garage in the city, bringing its parking capacity there to more than 3,000 spaces. The health care organization has a 550-space garage at James and Duke streets and a 2,200-space garage between Duke and Queen streets.

The hospital won't have a price tag for the project until it goes through the rezoning process, Lines said.

The new buildings would be taxable and would be developed and owned by a company called Arcadia Properties of Bethlehem. Lancaster General would lease them from Arcadia.

Both the city and county planning commissioners must make a recommendation to City Council about Lancaster General's plans after holding public meetings, according to Paula Jackson, chief city planner.

If the rezoning is granted, Lancaster General then must receive approval from the city Historical Commission for both the demolition of the existing buildings and the design of new ones, Jackson said

Lancaster General also will need to go through a land development plan.

cstauffer@lnpnews.com