Garden Grove : Medical Center Foes to Carry Fight to Council

Opponents of the planned Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, undaunted by the green light granted the project last month by the City Council, are moving ahead in their efforts to block construction.

An organization called Citizens for a Better Garden Grove has hired an attorney and members of the group plan to attend a Jan. 28 council meeting en masse to protest the project, slated for the southeast corner of Euclid Street and Chapman Avenue.

Last week, the Planning Commission upheld its 6-1 disapproval of the project. The council, which then voted in favor of the plan, returned it to the commission. Now, with the two bodies still at odds, the matter returns to the council Jan. 28 for a final decision.

John Bedard, a spokesman for the citizens’ group, said opponents will petition the council at that meeting to accept a new environmental impact report on the project.

The latest report was commissioned by the group and written by a consulting traffic engineer for the city of Burbank. It anticipates that the project will generate 300% more traffic than Kaiser predicts.

The site is almost two miles from the Garden Grove freeway and four miles from the Santa Ana Freeway. Opponents contend that traffic on the already-congested Euclid Street will become hopelessly clogged by thousands of additional vehicles. An equally gloomy scenario is predicted for Chapman Avenue.