Council OKs Plan to Buy Vauclain Point as Hospice Site

In an ending worthy of Cinderella, the San Diego Hospice Corp. found the glass slipper Monday when it finally won the right to buy Vauclain Point in Hillcrest as a site where the terminally ill can live out their lives in solitude and scenic beauty overlooking Mission Valley.

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously to exercise its municipal prerogative and use money from the Joan B. Kroc Foundation to buy the 10-acre point, now owned by the county, on behalf of the Hospice Corp. While the vote was a major victory for hospice officials, it also represented a political triumph of sorts for Councilman Bill Cleator, who continued to pursue the hospice deal even after it appeared to be lost a few months ago.

Monday’s vote capped one of the more bizarre success stories at City Hall. At one point, it pitted a mysterious multimillionaire donor, who demanded privacy for the hospice, against the sentiments of some community residents, who wanted part of the promontory kept open as a public park.

Council members believed they found a middle ground because hospice officials, after weeks of negotiations, said Monday that they would dedicate a slope on the point for a public nature trail. But some Hillcrest and Mission Hills residents Monday said they were upset with the hospice victory.

“I’m always disappointed when we see emotional blackmail turn people around,” said Joy Higginbotham, chairman of the Vauclain Point Advisory Committee, which is composed of people from several community groups and was established by County Supervisor Leon Williams.

Higginbotham said her committee actually preferred another proposal for a 240-bed, 60-room “continuing care” home for the elderly. Although that plan, offered by Mercy Hospital, would generate more traffic than the smaller hospice, it won the group’s approval because it called for 61% of the point to be dedicated to public use.

By comparison, the hospice proposal would give about 10% of the land for the nature trail, and that would be on the slope, out of sight of the terminally ill patients. The land would be purchased by the Kroc Foundation, but the city would have to pay for development of the trail.

Besides complaints from some residents, the hospice victory also was tempered by the fact that hospice officials still must convince the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to sell Vauclain Point to the city at an estimated price of $3 million instead of opening it up for bids by private developers. The matter is scheduled to be heard by the county supervisors today.

But those considerations were temporarily forgotten Monday afternoon in the emotional display after the council vote. Rich Edwards, vice president of the Hospice Corp., hugged those involved with the program and choked back tears to talk with reporters.

“It’s magnificent,” he said. “We were stunned . . . . It is an emotional high that I hope everyone experiences at some time.”

Hospice Corp., one of the largest programs of its kind in the country, does not have a building, but serves an average of 110 terminally ill people with in-home care, said Edwards. Out of the blue, the Kroc Foundation approached the organization in December, 1984, and offered to buy a piece of land and pay for a 24-bed facility, with the furnishings, at no cost to Hospice Corp. The organization approached the city for ideas.

About the same time, the county was looking to sell Vauclain Point. A finger mesa of about 12 acres that reaches north into Mission Valley at the end of 3rd Avenue, Vauclain Point has long been county land. At one time the county tuberculosis hospital and, later, mental health hospital, the facility now houses the San Diego AIDS Project.

Neighbors in Hillcrest and Mission Hills had tried to interest at first county, then city officials in purchasing the point for a park. During these discussions, city officials struck upon the idea of using its right of first refusal on the land to purchase Vauclain Point for the hospice with money from the Kroc Foundation, which demanded anonymity for its participation in the project.

The deal appeared to be working after Higginbotham and other members of the citizens committee received assurances from hospice officials that public access to the point would be permitted. But, in a strange twist, the conditions changed in August, when the donor insisted on no public park because of concern for the privacy of the terminally ill patients.

Complaining that it had been betrayed, the community group then fought the hospice plan before the City Council. Council members, frustrated because they were unable to negotiate with a donor they couldn’t see, rejected the hospice plan. “I don’t like the Howard Hughes bit,” said then-Mayor Roger Hedgecock.

But Cleator, whose brother died six years ago of cancer, said he continued to be intrigued by the possibilities and pursued the deal. During council discussion, he was told that the donor was known to him, so he made a list of five people with enough money to afford such a gift and began writing letters asking for a second chance. He eventually hit upon Kroc, and rekindled negotiations with her foundation’s attorney.

Cleator also said he enlisted the aid of a friend who was a landscape architect to come up with the idea of a nature trail out of the line of sight of the patients.

The Kroc Foundation agreed to the trail, and within the last few weeks the hospice plan was revived. Yet Mercy Hospital officials had begun to push their own plan for the point, believing the hospice issue was moot.

Mercy officials, however, agreed to step aside and let the hospice plan rise or fall on its own merits. On Friday, hospice officials moved to further enhance their chances by ending the mystery and revealing that their benefactor was the Kroc Foundation.

The hospice plan was on the line alone Monday when City Council members took a second look at what to do with Vauclain Point.

San Diego Hospice made its pitch with the help of several speakers, including former Satuday Review editor Norman Cousins, who is currently on the faculty of UCLA.

Comparing dying to leaving the stage during a play, Cousins, who was diagnosed as having terminal cancer but who has recovered, told council members, “What we are talking about essentially is how people leave the stage of life. Will they go out with style? Or will the final scene be filled with pain . . . indignity and squalor?”

Whether it was Cousins’ eloquence or Cleator’s persistence, council members reversed themselves and breathed life into the hospice plan. The vote was a conceptual approval, and if hospice officials receive a final go-ahead from the county today, they still must obtain the proper permits.

Higginbotham said Monday that she was disappointed that the City Council did not word its motion to require the public trail on the point. Without that stipulation in writing, she said, the public access could disappear in the planning process.

She also said the council made an emotional decision, ignoring its own vow that no public money would ever be used on the point.

But Cleator said the hospice decision was not based on an “emotional response. It’s hard for me to believe that any politician is going to become emotional about a constituency that is going to disappear. It’s a terrible thing to say, but their patients have no longer to live than two or three months.”

Cleator said it was “certainly the intent” to require the trail on the property. Cleator suggested the public cost would be minimal.

“I don’t think there’s an either/or in this particular incident,” Cleator said after the vote. “It’s a win-win for both the neighborhood and the City of San Diego.”