PPH Board Denounces Latest City Proposal
Aug. 17–POWAY — Palomar Pomerado Health’s board of directors on Tuesday angrily denounced a proposal that would cut the size of a proposed hospital site in an Escondido business park to 25 acres, saying the idea is completely unworkable.
Speaking during a special board meeting at Pomerado Hospital in Poway, the directors were responding to an offer that Escondido Councilman Ed Gallo and Councilwoman Marie Waldron made in an Aug. 4 letter to the board.
The two, along with Escondido Councilman Sam Abed, have objected to Palomar Pomerado’s plans to build the hospital on 52 acres in the mostly vacant Escondido Research and Technology Center on the city’s west side.
Gallo and Waldron represent the city on an ad hoc committee charged with working with Palomar Pomerado officials in an effort to reach agreement on the best place for the new hospital.
Their letter offered to support the public health district’s plans to build in the business park if the hospital district agrees to limit the project’s size, and commit to the redevelopment of Palomar Medical Center and the area about it in downtown Escondido.
“We have spent over five years having discussions with people and talking about the best way to do it,” board member Nancy Scofield said Tuesday, sounding upset. “Twenty-five acres — it’s not even worth talking about.”
Other hospital district board members said that the council members’ position is delaying the hospital’s construction and costing the district money.
Board member Bruce Krider said that it might be time for the district to get tough with the city over the hospital issue.
“It’s like a fourth-level Dante’s Inferno, where you keep reliving everything,” he said. “That’s a very frustrating thing for me. I guess if they’re going to hang tight and try and tell us what kind of land we can have and where we can do it, then I guess we’re going to have to start looking at our other options seriously.”
However, the board decided not to discuss the possibility of asking the Escondido council to rescind its May resolution to oppose the district’s plans to build the hospital in the technology center. Instead, board members indicated that it was now up to the city to “take the lead” in finding a solution that will make the project work in Escondido.
Board member Alan Larson said he thought the rescinding would be “a goodwill gesture” on the city’s part. However, the board did not discuss making the request, and most of the board members left before a second special meeting convened, leaving board Chairman Marcelo Rivera without a quorum needed to hold that session.
The question of where to build the new hospital has been an ongoing issue that has divided district and city officials for months. Palomar Pomerado officials spent several years working on their plans to expand the public health district and considered more than a half dozen sites for the new hospital before zeroing in on the business park one.
The new facility is part of a $753 million project that will also see Palomar Medical Center in downtown Escondido being renovated, and Pomerado Hospital in Poway would double in size. The district also plans to build several satellite medical centers in outlying parts of the 800-square-mile area it serves.
The district paid $6.5 million for an option on the business park land, but the option expires at the end of the month.
City officials have said they would prefer to have the hospital built on a different site because they want to save the business park for companies that would bring high-tech jobs to the city.
The city offered an alternative site at Spruce and Quince streets for the hospital project earlier this year. Hospital officials have rejected that proposal, saying the site is not big enough, would require the district to condemn and purchase surrounding properties, and presents too many challenges.
On Tuesday, hospital architect Mike Shanahan said county records show the city’s preferred site has a history of environmental problems.
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