MISSION VIEJO : Last Hospital Work OKd by Planners

The last major addition to South County’s largest medical facility was approved this week by the Planning Commission.

By a 5-0 vote, the commission cleared the way for a seven-story office building to be built next to the Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.

With construction already under way on a 200-bed addition to the main patient tower, hospital officials say that work on the medical complex is nearly complete.

“This is a major step,” said Gary Fybel, hospital administrator. The 175,100-square-foot addition “is the last of its size” on the medical center site.

Approval of the project “reflects that this area near Crown Valley (Parkway and Interstate 5) is going to be the future core of South Orange County,” he said.

The expansion is a joint project of the hospital and the Bentall Development Co. Space in the office building will be leased by commercial clients, Fybel said.

Unlike the new patient wing, which was opposed last year by neighbors concerned with losing their views to the five-story addition, plans for the office building drew no opposition from the community.

The seven-story building would be “well below their line of sight,” at the bottom of a hill, said Fybel. “I don’t think it impedes anyone’s view.”

Work on the office building is scheduled to begin next year with construction expected to be completed within 12 months.