By Marianne Love
A retired heart and thoracic surgeon at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center is taking its administration to task over a multi-million-dollar expansion they have planned without a full environmental impact report.
Timothy D. Germann, M.D. lives a block and a half from where hospital administrators want to build a $143-million wing that will include 101 new beds, with the potential to add 35 more in the future, and a neonatal intensive- care center on its campus at Rinaldi Street and Indian Hills Road in Mission Hills.
The city's planning commission unanimously approved the proposed four-story hospital wing on July 26. Commissioners said any impacts caused by the project could be corrected and that the hospital agreed to perform more mitigation measures than required.
Germann, however, has filed an appeal of that decision.
Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross, a coalition representing civil rights organizations, residents, neighborhood council members, environmental advocates and labor groups, filed a separate appeal to the Los Angeles City Council last week.
Germann, who bought his home after spotting it from what was the sixth floor of Holy Cross Hospital before the 1971 Sylmar earthquake destroyed it, said he paid $85 to file the appeal and didn't know another organization was doing the same.
"My appeal is about the variance they are asking for: One, building the building seven feet from the sidewalk versus the required 25 feet and two, building the expansion 95 feet tall when regulations are a 45-feet limit," Germann said.
Coalition members question why environmental impact reports were required for hospital expansions in higher-income communities such as Santa Monica, Santa Clarita and Beverly Hills, but aren't required in underserved communities of the Northeast Valley.
"Providence Health and Services apparently feels no obligation to consider this community's concerns as they move forward. Their disregard for the EIR process in the Northeast Valley is inconsistent with the precedent that they and other developers have adhered to in higher-income communities across the region and state," said Maria Loya, director of public policy for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which is a member of the coalition.
Germann, who said he doesn't oppose the 120,000-square-foot expansion with a full environmental impact report, is also upset that Indian Hills Road, which splits the hospital campus, could never be widened if the administration is allowed to build seven feet from the road.
"It's important that they want to limit the width of Indian Hills Road forever. That can't be because traffic on Indian Hills Road is tremendous and there are jaywalkers and it must be widen because there are 26 acres behind my house that is going to be developed and Indian Hills is the only way out," Germann said.
Indian Hills Road, north of Rinaldi Street, ends at Germann's driveway, and he will be highly impacted by the increase in traffic and parking when the hospital wing gets into full swing.
And, while he, at times, centers on the process and whether Holy Cross Medical Center officials properly follow the rules, Germann stands to further lose the serenity he enjoys since buying his house in 1962 on the hill behind the hospital.
Hospital administrators have always contended they are willing to mitigate any traffic and parking problems and that all of the impacts are on the table, but critics remain relentless.
Hospital spokesman Dan Boyle said the hospital's concern is that an environmental impact report could delay the expansion by 18 months and that the delay could cost lives in the San Fernando Valley.
"Especially if there is a major disaster such as an earthquake or a flu pandemic," Boyle said.
Boyle said 50-plus percent of admissions to the hospital come through the emergency room. Last week, 300 plus people were seeking treatment at Holy Cross, but there were only 255 beds.
"We had close to 50 people who couldn't get into beds. The overflow waits in the hallways," Boyle said.
The hospital has just kicked off a public relations campaign earlier this week by advertising in local newspapers by sharing the story of how the hospital saved the life of a police officer. The ad encourages the reader to call Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon to "urge him to please help our community by supporting the expansion at Holy Cross NOW."
Alarcon has been against the expansion without a full environmental impact report. Alarcon has said the issue isn't either being for or against expanding the hospital, but about significantly correcting any negative impact from traffic and parking.
He said a full environmental impact report would provide a clearer picture.
"I continue to support an expansion and look forward to a debate in the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and City Council," Alarcon said in a prepared statement.
Hospital administrators tried to convince several surrounding neighborhood councils to support the proposed project without a full environmental impact report, but they were unsuccessful.
Boyle said the hospital is now spending about $50,000 on a public relations blitz.More newspaper ads are expected, along with direct mailers, radio and cable television spots as well as Spanish languageradio because more than 50 percent of the hospital patients and about 55 percent of mothers who deliver at Holy Cross are Latina.
"It's not about the money. We are trying to let the community know that there is a great need for expansion of beds in the San Fernando Valley," Boyle said.
"We were expecting an appeal, so we are basically following the planning commission's recommendations."
Boyle added that since the hospital began offering free parking earlier this summer, hospital officials have also been working on a plan that would alert hospital patients and visitors exactly where to park as recommended by the planning commission.
He said on Sept. 4, hospital officials started a shuttle service from the Metrolink station in nearby Sylmar to the hospital for employees.
"We are also trying to push that we have a public-transit incentive program. We want to do our part to get employees to use public transportation," Boyle added. The matter will go before the Los Angeles City Council by the end of the year.
