UCI and County Confer on Road

I was very surprised to read Supervisor Don R. Roth’s comments in the press that coordination between UCI and the county on development plans at the Manchester Complex had been minimal. This, he said, led to authorization of a lawsuit to stop construction of the parking garage at UCI Medical Center.

Actually, the staff of UCI and the county met regularly for 6 months with a jointly selected consultant to discuss the traffic that could result from parking garages built both on UCI and county sides of the complex. The conclusion of the consultant and the staffs was that construction of those facilities would have minimal impact on City Way traffic. They also concluded that the road could handle traffic from future planned development with relatively minimal improvements.

I might add that City Way has been in use as an access road to the medical center for many years, well before the university bought the hospital from the county in 1976. It is absolutely vital to the center’s ability to function at capacity, as it cares for hundreds of county residents each day.

I would suggest that while Supervisor Roth’s coordination with county staff may have been minimal on this issue, representatives of the two agencies have been fully informed and have been working hard to resolve whatever differences we may have.

LEON M. SCHWARTZ

Vice Chancellor

UC Irvine