Traffic Worries Stall Torrance Medical Project

The Torrance City Council has delayed consideration of new medical buildings in south Torrance for at least two months because of concern that a proliferation of such offices could worsen traffic problems on already congested Lomita Boulevard.

The council unanimously agreed Tuesday night to postpone action until late June on the proposed conversion of an 18,000-square-foot industrial building to medical offices until a study of the potential impact of such land use changes is completed. The building is located across Lomita Boulevard from Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center.

The decision is the third in a series of actions by the council in recent months to withhold approval of medical office and hospital expansion projects in Torrance because of concerns about their impact on traffic. In each case, the council asked for separate studies of the impact of each proposal.

Complaints From Residents

The other two projects, proposed by Torrance Memorial Hospital and Little Company of Mary Hospital, have prompted warnings from city planners and complaints from neighborhood residents about adverse environmental impacts.

A land use study is in progress on Torrance Memorial Hospital’s $14-million expansion plan, which includes a skilled nursing center, a meeting facility and a six-level, 931-space garage.

Across town, in the face of an outpouring of neighborhood concern, the council agreed last month to have the city’s Planning Commission, which is independent of the city Planning Department, conduct a rigorous review of Little Company of Mary’s planned $17-million medical office complex.

Neighborhood residents fear that construction of medical offices and a two-level parking structure opposite the hospital at Torrance Boulevard and Earl Street will aggravate near-gridlock conditions at rush hour on nearby streets and generate more cut-through traffic on residential streets in the area.

City planners have said both hospital projects could aggravate traffic problems. The issue was the same in the case of the conversion project proposed by developer E. E. Lohn along Lomita Boulevard.

Lohn tried in vain to persuade the council that the conversion would “not noticeably affect traffic on Lomita at any time.”

Traffic consultants say Lomita Boulevard is near capacity, carrying 33,000 vehicle trips a day, with capacity of 36,000.

Councilwoman Dee Hardison said the city needs to examine the overall effect of changing industrial buildings to medical offices instead of looking at the projects on a case-by-case basis. Hardison complained that she has “no feeling of where we are going in the city.”

Effects of Conversions

And she wondered: “Is there great medical need in this community that we’re not meeting?”

Until there are answers about the effects of converting industrial buildings to medical uses, Hardison said she “can’t continue with any more medical buildings in industrial zones.”

Councilman Mark Wirth also expressed concern about the potential expansion of medical offices on the north side of Lomita Boulevard across from Torrance Memorial. “I’m not prepared to say it’s the right thing,” he said.

And Mayor Katy Geissert opposed conversion of the industrial building at Lomita Boulevard and Telo Avenue because of concern that it would be “one step along the way in a progression (of medical buildings) up and down that street.”