Dire Prognosis:
An expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills was halted in midproject recently by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. He ruled that the Los Angeles City Council must either order a more extensive environmental impact report or vote to approve the project. That pleased opponents of the expansion, including some neighborhood groups and the Service Employees International Union. Here are two opposing editorials on the issue, one by a leader of the opposition and another by the chief executive of the medical center.
By WAYDE HUNTER
As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” That, unfortunately, is exactly what happened with the San Fernando Valley community and the developers at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.
Since the beginning, Providence Holy Cross has worked overtime to go around California Environmental Quality Act rules, avoid conducting an environmental impact report, and stonewall the will of residents and elected officials. As a result, the matter will now be decided in the courts, where Providence Holy Cross, and its army of consultants and politicos have no sway.
Also from the beginning, this matter has been hamstrung by Providence Holy Cross’ own efforts. The City Council voted in 2007 and required the developer to conduct an EIR it so artfully dodged when it misled bureaucrats in the city’s Planning Department into thinking one was not necessary. The mitigations to the hospital expansion traffic, important seismic issues and
parking are vital to the quality of life for the community.
Providence Holy Cross believed that an army of paid political consultants, advertisers and “spinners” could help it avoid having to obey the law. Instead of following the law, the developer opted to spend nearly $2 million to hide behind a phalanx of lobbyists and consultants, all the while ignoring the legitimate seismic, environmental and community concerns.
The Los Angeles City Council tried to resolve the issue and restart hospital construction after a superior court judge’s order in October to halt construction. But rather than work with the community to develop important mitigations, Providence Holy Cross decided to defy the judge’s ruling by speeding construction, rather than take its chances with the council. Providence Holy Cross appealed the judge’s ruling in November and, as a result, has moved the matter to the courts. The L.A. city attorney has now opined that a City Council vote is irrelevant.
To be clear, despite the hospital’s attempts to blame it on politics, the community’s issue has and remains the same Providence Holy Cross cannot sidestep the law. It must find a way to mitigate legitimate seismic, traffic and parking concerns that have been raised by a majority of the City Council and the community.
Northeast Valley residents deserve the same environmental protections as affluent communities. Nine other hospitals in the Greater Los Angeles region with comprehensive development agreements have conducted EIRs. Providence Holy Cross should not be the exception. It needs to abide by CEQA laws, the need to do the “right thing” for our communities, some of which are already deemed as environmental justice areas due to poor air quality and all are historically prone to seismic movement.
However, Providence Holy Cross decided to spend money on advertising instead of answering legitimate questions, such as how it intends to offset more than 5,700 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, why it misled city planners on its CEQA application concerning seismic issues, and whether Providence Holy Cross is already planning to construct a garage to address woefully inadequate parking. To this day, Providence Holy Cross has yet to publicly state its intentions.
The community never bought into Providence Holy Cross’ spin operation, and neither did a host of City Council members. Developers need to be held accountable for their projects and their impacts to ensure that seismic and quality-of-life issues choking our community poor air quality, heavy traffic and a frustrating lack of parking are addressed up front as a complete effort, not in a piecemeal fashion.
There is no debate about whether or not the Valley needs more hospital beds it does. But the hospital’s high-priced lobbyists are trying to transform a legitimate debate about quality-of-life impacts into a political issue between a health care workers’ union and hospital bosses.
Too bad Providence didn’t do the right thing from the beginning. Now they’re stuck with their hospital expansion in the courts and the community is left hanging. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
Wayde Hunter is president of the North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens Inc. and he is a member of another non-profit called the Community Advocates for a Responsible Expansion. He lives in Granada Hills.
