Hoag gets OK to add to expansion

June Casagrande

A request by Hoag Hospital to add almost 50,000 square feet to the

next phase of the hospital’s expansion has won the approval of city

leaders, but not without some serious reservations.

Hospital representatives asked the City Council to increase the

area on which they could build the planned East Tower because state

and federal regulations passed in the 10 years since Hoag’s expansion

was approved require the hospital to make more space for utilities,

as well as electrical and mechanical equipment. The tower was

originally planned to be 397,711 square feet.

Peter Foulke, the hospital’s executive vice president of corporate

services, emphasized that all the hospital wanted was to have the

same amount of space for health-care services as was originally

approved in 1992.

“The health-care needs in this community are expanding,” Foulke

said. “Hoag Hospital is here only to serve the community. We’re not

for profit.”

But Councilman Gary Adams worried that the action, as written,

could give the hospital carte blanche to exceed floor-area limits for

future buildings.

“My concern has to do with the integrity of the process,” Adams

said. “This has the potential of undoing all the decision-making

process that took place a long time ago. I don’t think that it’s fair

to people who were originally involved in this process.”

Adams on Tuesday suggested allowing the hospital to expand as

requested, but on the conditions that the loosened regulations not

apply to future buildings and that the hospital agree not to use any

of the added floor space for traffic-generating uses, such as patient

care.

But fellow council members didn’t back him up. Councilman Gary

Proctor made an alternative motion. The hospital should agree to

Adams’ second condition, Proctor said, but hospital administrators

should not have to go through the same process for future buildings,

he said. Council members agreed, approving the action 6 to 1, with

Adams’ the only “no” vote.

But controversy over Hoag expansion will probably continue. Some

neighbors have said that sprawl on the Hoag campus must be reined in

to prevent problems such as excessive traffic and noise generated by

emergency rooms.

“We’re doing the Hoag dance,” resident John Chamberlain said.

“This should be exposed as a brand-new approach.”