The victory Providence Holy Cross Medical Center won when the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for its $146 million expansion project could be temporarily short-circuited. Before the project’s several dozen supporters could exit Van Nuys City Hall July 26, members of Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross (CARE) were discussing plans to appeal the decision before the City Council. “It was a railroad job, show business,” retired Holy Cross physician Timothy Germann called the decision. “There was no real hearing. It was just pushed through.” Members of CARE, a newly formed collective of area neighborhood councils and community groups, say that they do not oppose the expansion itself but that administrators of the Mission Hills hospital want to build the 101-bed South Addition without conducting an environmental impact report (EIR). “The Planning Commission wants to fast track this,” Nick Krall, a Sylmar Neighborhood Council board member, said. Krall addressed the commission during the public hearing portion of the meeting. The commission first reviewed the project in March but delayed voting on it. Despite requests by Councilman Richard Alarc & #243;n and Commissioner Cindy Montanez to issue another continuance, the commission declined, citing the large number of community members who had gathered in anticipation of a decision. In a statement, Alarc & #243;n expressed his dismay over the one ultimately reached. “For the life of me I do not understand how the City Planning Commission does not see the need for a full environmental impact report for a project that is 119,570 sq. feet of construction, 136 additional beds and four stories high, equaling 97 feet in height,” he said. “This is a large project that will definitely impact traffic for many miles around.” According to Department of Transportation engineer Sergio Valdez, a traffic study the department completed on the expansion revealed otherwise. The South Addition will not have a significant impact on its surroundings, he said. Therefore, an environmental impact report was rendered unnecessary, and the hospital performed a mitigated negative declaration (MND), which it recently expanded. “The endpoint of an EIR is not different from an expanded MND,” Providence Holy Cross administrator Kerry Carmody said. “That’s a misconception.” In an EIR, methods, including alternatives, by which a project’s major environmental effects may be minimized are named. In a mitigated negative declaration, the project is revised to ensure that its environmental impact will be insignificant. “(CARE) is asking for an EIR no matter what, and we’re not legally required or recommended to have one,” Carmody said. But CARE members assert that the city’s planning standards are outdated and inadequate; thus, Holy Cross administrators should heed the outcry of local neighborhood councils and other community groups and conduct an EIR. “An EIR would specifically tie in what they have to do with traffic and air quality,” Bart Reed, executive director of the Sylmar-based Transit Coalition, said. “With a project this large there should have been hearings with the community and input taken from the public. They should have put together a list of community betterments.” Delay threatened Holy Cross representatives say 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 Hospital Medical Center and Granada Hills Community Hospital have closed in recent years. “This is a health care crisis,” Carmody said. “We run at 110 percent capacity every day. There is a true urgent need for beds.” CARE advocates bristle at the notion that they will endanger lives by appealing the Planning Commission’s decision, as members first requested that an EIR be performed in late 2005. “Why would they be so adamant in not wanting an EIR?” Reed asked. “If these issues had been addressed, you wouldn’t see hospital employees’ cars parked all over the neighborhood.” During the planning meeting, Commissioner Spencer Kezios validated the concerns over parking. He told his fellow commissioners that, before the meeting, he visited the hospital and found no available street parking. As a result of his finding and others, the commission agreed to approve the hospital’s expansion only if more signs were erected to point out available parking, a tree was situated per every eight stalls and a pre-disaster mitigation program was implemented. While pleased with the meeting’s outcome, hospital spokesman Dan Boyle objected to the characterization of Holy Cross as parking-deficient. “Parking has always been available,” he said. “We have almost 1,000 spaces.” Creating parking Moreover, the hospital has taken several steps to create more available parking and reduce traffic in the area, according to Carmody. That includes decreasing the cost of parking to zero and giving employees assigned spaces. “We have made significant financial and operational commitment to the community to keep parking affordable and to make as much space as possible available for parking,” Carmody said. “Our commitment is to continue to look for additional parking.” To reduce traffic, Carmody said the hospital has worked to synchronize traffic lights in the area. But he added, “Our hospital is only a small portion of traffic. There’s a high school. We’re between five freeways.” Carmody believes that some of the people who object to the expansion plan as it is might not realize this. “I understand that many of the individuals who are opposing this don’t live in the neighborhood,” he said. “They live in the outlying areas.” In contrast, the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council has given its support to the expansion plan.