Councilmember Richard Alarcon is throwing a press conference today at 1 pm to release "troubling seismic and air quality information" regarding a halted $182 million expansion to the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The airing of the grievances will also include members of the Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion (CARE), folks who live adjacent to the northeast Valley hospital and are upset over increased traffic and less parking. CARE and Alarcon claim they've asked Providence for an Environmental Impact Report for two years to no avail. Construction on the four-story, 120,000 square foot addition was stopped Nov. 7 when a Superior Court judge ordered the City Council to revisit an earlier vote that didn't garner enough support for an EIR. Today's conference seems like a public nudge for any unconvinced councilmembers.
MEDIA ADVISORY !!!
WHAT: Troubling seismic and air quality information concerning Providence Holy Cross Medical Center's expansion will be released to the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Villaraigosa's office by Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion (CARE) members who live directly adjacent to the medical center.
WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
1:00 P.M.
WHERE: Providence Holy Cross Medical Center
15031 Rinaldi Street (corner of Rinaldi and Lev Streets)
Mission Hills, CA
WHO: Richard Alarcon, Los Angeles City Councilman
Theodore Franklin, Esq.
Said Hilmy, Ph.D. S.E. and Principal, IDS Group, Inc.
Nick Krawl, Resident
Wayde Hunter, Resident
Arturo Diaz, San Fernando Valley Philippino Chamber of Commerce
BACK-
GROUND: For two years CARE, elected officials and residents have asked Providence officials to complete an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), for its expansion. These requests have consistently been ignored. In November 2007, a majority of L.A. City Council members (8) voted to urge Providence to complete an EIR, a sufficient number of votes under CEQA, but short of the City's 2/3rds super-majority municipal code requirement.
A petition for a writ of mandate suit was filed in Superior Court on behalf of the community. The Court, on September 26, 2008, ordered the City Council to revisit its vote and construction at Providence to stop completely until the City Council reconsiders the matter. In his decision from the bench, the Judge stated, "The likelihood, based on the facts that have [been] presented to me thus far in this project not requiring EIR, is somewhere on the scale of zero to a hundred, about five." The matter is now before the City Council.
CARE is a broad coalition of civil rights, community, environmental and labor organizations working to insure that the citizens of the Northeast San Fernando Valley are afforded the protections they deserve in the expansion of the Providence Hospital.
· Construction stops on Providence Holy Cross [San Fernando Sun]
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