Garden Grove : Protest of Hospital Plan at Council Session Vowed

City Atty. Eric Lauterer said Friday that he will advise the mayor and City Council not to take public testimony when they consider the issue of the proposed Kaiser Permanente Medical Center on Monday night.

Opponents of the project have said they will attend the council meeting en masse to protest the 28.5-acre development planned for the southeast corner of Euclid Street and Chapman Avenue. A group called Citizens for a Better Garden Grove has been passing out fliers urging residents to voice their opposition at the meeting.

The group recently commissioned an independent study that projects the $260-million medical center will generate 300% more traffic than predicted by Kaiser. The Kaiser estimates have been accepted into the project’s environmental impact report.

Lauterer, however, noted that both the council and the Planning Commission have already accepted that report, “so the issue is moot.”

Monday’s meeting “is not a public hearing. We already did about 15 hours of that,” he said. Both sides have been advised of his intended advice to the council, Lauterer said.

“The only way any additional information or testimony could come in would be for the council to open the whole hearing again. You just can’t have half a meeting,” he said.

The medical center will consist of a 400-bed, seven-story hospital, more than 500,000 square feet of clinical office space, a 50-bed nursing care facility and a seven-level parking garage. Construction is scheduled in three phases over the next 10 years.

Last October, the Planning Commission voted against the project by a 6-1 vote. That decision, however, was overturned by the council on Dec. 12 by a 4-1 margin.

Earlier this month, the commission reaffirmed its negative vote. By law, the council has the final word, and the council members are expected to uphold their earlier decision.