San Diego

A San Diego City Council committee decided Wednesday to help the San Diego Hospice build a 24-bed nursing facility at Hillcrest’s Vauclain Point.

Swayed by the hospice’s promise to create a park on the 12 acres of county-owned land, council members formed a task force to meet with county officials and try to expedite a sale.

Years ago, county officials ran a mental hospital on the site at the northern end of 3rd Street. But on April 9, they announced they no longer needed the land and would sell it.

The brush-covered hillside site was recently appraised at $6.5 million. It is in a rare patch of open space behind two hospitals in crowded Hillcrest.

In contrast to the zoning that allows 90 housing units on the site, hospice officials said they would build a small facility and turn the remaining 11 acres into a public park. But if the hospice were to go through the county’s usual competitive bidding process, hospice director Doris Howell said she doubted it could afford the land.

By a 3-0 vote, the council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee authorized a task force, led by Councilman Bill Cleator, to meet with the county to try to secure the land and report back by mid-May. Hospice officials pledged that the land would be purchased by an anonymous donor, not with city money.