Hospital Hearing at City Council Raises Serious Questions

The Santa Clarita City Council held a lengthy hearing on the proposed expansion of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital site by G&L Realty of Beverly Hills. The majority component is a buildout of medical office buildings and an increase in density of four times the current hospital facility density. Significant traffic, noise, and density problems seem inevitable with the Council's approval of this 25 year Master Plan.

The Santa Clarita Planning Commission approved the much contested 25-year expansion plan for the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital (HMNMH) in Valencia by a 3-2 vote in February. The proposal will now go to the Santa Clarita City Council for final approval. This week's hearing resulted in some city council members asking for additional information about the hospital expansion plan from the independent consulting service, the City's Planning Dept, and the City Attorney.

Residents of Valencia Summit and surrounding neighborhoods are concerned about the increase in traffic and the likelihood of the use of eminent domain to widen roads in the area to accomodate the expansion.

Smart Growth SCV has been very vocal in fighting the expansion, stating that there will be very few beds added to the hospital and that the expansion will mostly be for office space. The HMNMH hospital developers have made some concessions to the local residents by reducing the height of some buildings and eliminating one proposed building, but Smart Growth SCV claims that this is not enough.

Hospital officials say that the expansion plan would allow for an expansion in cardiac care, a new women's center and a neonatal intensive care unit, all services that are currently unavailable in the SCV. Critics say that the expansion provides mainly for office space, and not for the much touted additional beds and facilities that were the key selling points of the plan.

Hospital officials have prepared a fact sheet showing the original proposal and the modified proposal to encourage residents to support their expansion plan.

I have listened to much of the testimony on Channel 20, and it appears to me that the site is completely inadequate for the planned use. While the G&L Realty representatives, who presented this latest incarnation of the proposal, characterized the opponents as a few local NIMBYs and a competing hospital, the fact of the matter is that this plan, if approved, would justify asking some serious questions about the competence of our city council members, along with City Planning, and the City Attorney, who seemed content to enter into an agreement that would basically give a blank check to the co-applicants, G&L Realty and HMNMH, without any assurance or guarantee that actual hospital facilities would be built after the medical office buildings are constructed and this community hospital site is converted to a high-density commercial complex.

Shame and Kudos due

Shame on the city council and city management for even considering this type of over-development in this residential neighborhood. With other hospital developers in the wings, wouldn't it be more prudent to encourage others and distribute services towards sites more suited for a hospital? The televised hearing did not reflect well on our council members Frank Ferry and Bob Kellar, who should have been much more prepared with all of the facts instead of parroting G&L's party line.

Kudos to Tim Ben Boydston, who took the initiative in first asking the hard questions. While I had my reservations about the qualifications of the CRT owner and director when he was appointed to the city council, he has so far done a pretty good job. In addition, recognition and kudos go to Laurene Weste for her follow-up directives to city staff to answer serious questions about this proposal before bringing it back to review by the City Council.