Torrance Signals OK for Medical Building

Impassioned pleas from doctors and hospital administrators appear likely to overwhelm neighborhood concerns about an $11-million medical office building proposed by Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.

After an emotional 3-hour public hearing Tuesday night, City Council members postponed a final decision on the project until Aug. 28, but they gave clear signals that they will ultimately approve the medical complex if it is redesigned to their taste.

Focal Point of Battle

The project--which would be built on a 4.3-acre site bounded by Earl, Maricopa and Emerald streets, one block north of Torrance Boulevard--has been the focal point of a battle between the hospital and homeowners for more than a year.

Little Company of Mary representatives told council members that the hospital’s future could in danger if it is denied the medical office facilities needed to compete with other area hospitals and health-care providers. Doctors tend to admit patients to the hospital nearest their offices, according to a survey conducted by Little Company of Mary.

Local banker George Schneider, a member of the hospital’s board of directors, warned that the hospital’s “profitability is now borderline” and that it has lost money in the last several months. The hospital is a nonprofit facility owned by the Sisters of Little Company of Mary, a Roman Catholic religious order.

“Do not add the name of Little Company of Mary Hospital to the litany of closed hospitals,” Schneider said.

But leaders of neighborhood homeowner associations warned that construction of the revised 4-story, 62,600-square-foot medical building, and an adjoining 2-story parking structure and surface lot for a total of 460 cars, could drown their neighborhood in traffic.

Fran Quinlan, another neighborhood resident, said the hospital’s plans are inappropriate and incompatible with the residential area.

Traffic Cited

Quinlan said residential areas around the hospital will be affected by the 3,200 additional vehicle trips per day that will be generated by the medical building. She told council members that building more medical facilities is “not in the best interest of Torrance.”

Quoting from the city’s General Plan, Quinlan said residential neighborhoods should be safe, quiet and easy to get to, have privacy and be enduring. “A healthy and wholesome neighborhood is not always threatened with development,’ Quinlan said.

Some council members said they had told hospital officials in private meetings that the project should be redesigned to improve traffic circulation, and they expressed irritation that the hospital had not heeded the warning.

“We did send out a message, and it wasn’t heard clearly,” Councilman Mark Wirth said.

But council members all but told the hospital that they would vote for the project if the medical building is moved to the center of the site. That would make it harder for the hospital to seek an expansion later.

Compromise Urged

Councilman Bill Applegate told hospital administrators that the project would have to be altered, and he urged them to compromise with the city. He told hospital officials that they had been playing “hardball” with the council, and “it’s not something you do. . . . It’s not going to fly if you don’t move the building.”

Mayor Katy Geissert said simply:”There needs to be some redesign.”

In an unusual opening statement, Geissert tried unsuccessfully to defuse the emotions that surround the issue. She said the hospital’s arguments were based on the survival of “a great community health center” and the homeowners’ on valid neighborhood concerns about traffic and safety.

“The conflict that has developed is unfortunate,” she said.

But both sides were out in force Tuesday night, and the conflict could not be papered over.

Important for Doctors

Dr. Robert K. Nagamoto, an obstetrician, told council members that it is important for doctors to have their offices as close to the hospital as possible.

Dr. Claire Friend added that “the issue isn’t traffic, really. The issue is preservation of the very high level of medical care here in Torrance.”

Friend noted that Torrance has one of the largest shopping malls in the world, Del Amo Fashion Center. “It’s hard for us to believe we can’t have one more medical office building,” she said.

James Ruetz, vice president of the hospital, told council members that Little Company of Mary critically needs more medical office space near the hospital to remain economically viable. He said the facility’s profits have been declining and its market share is being lost to competitors.

“The timing of our project is critical,” he said.

After examining the hospital’s financial statements, Torrance Finance Director Mary Giordano said Little Company of Mary’s return on gross revenues had dropped from 8.3%in 1985 to 3.5%in 1987.

The average number of patients per day declined from 184 to 157 last year out of a total of 268 beds.

James Lester, president of the hospital, said it actually lost money during the last three months.

The medical office building would provide offices for 55 doctors directly across the street from the hospital. It would be the third medical office building in the area.

By contrast, there are 11 medical office buildings near the sprawling Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center on Lomita Boulevard.

A newly completed city study recommends that the council not allow any more industrial buildings to be converted to medical offices in the Torrance Memorial Hospital area because of traffic problems on Lomita Boulevard.

Torrance Memorial also has plans for a $14-million project to build a health education center, a 6-story parking structure and a 120-bed skilled nursing facility that will provide levels of care between those of a nursing home and a hospital.

Lester said Little Company of Mary must expand to remain competitive. “Hospitals with more land have more options,” he said. “That is why this land is so key to us.”

But most of the residents who attended the meeting disagreed.

John L. Eubanks, president of the Southwood Homeowners Assn., said people in Torrance and throughout Southern California are “fed up with traffic.”

Eubanks noted that major intersections near Little Company of Mary are already operating at what traffic engineers consider the worst level of congestion.

“It’s bad now, and it can only get worse,” he said. “There is lots of development, and they have a cumulative impact. . . . We are just not going to be able to keep going the way we are.”