Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross has appealed the Los Angeles City Planning and Zoning Commission’s July 26 decision to allow the hospital to build a 101-bed South Addition without an environmental impact report. The appeal, made initially to the City Planning Department, will likely end up in the hands of the City Council. “Providence Health & Services apparently feels no obligation to consider this community’s concerns as they move forward,” said Maria Loya, Director of Public Policy for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a member of CARE. “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,” C.A.R.E. asserts that by allowing the $146 million expansion to take place without an environmental impact report, which would name methods by which a project’s major environmental effects may be minimized, the Planning Commission is failing to protect the public. “All developers have a responsibility to safeguard the health and well-being of the public,and a hospital has an even greater obligation to do so,” said Nick Krall, a member of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council. Holy Cross representatives have said that conducting an EIR would delay the construction of the expansion by at least 18 months, a major concern because two nearby medical facilities,the Sherman Way campus of Northridge Medical Center and Granada Hills Community Hospital,have closed. Hospital spokesman Dan Boyle said that an environmental impact report would provide no additional conditions not already in place. “By us agreeing to the conditions in the expanded (mitigated negative declaration), all potential negative impacts from the South Addition project will be reduced to a level of insignificance,” Boyle said. The expanded negative declaration is supported by many in the community, including the unanimous support of the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council, Boyle added.