NEWPORT BEACH : Hospital Expansion Hearing Tonight

Opponents of Hoag Hospital’s expansion plans will continue to present their alternative development plan in another public hearing on the issue tonight before the Planning Commission.

The opponents are mostly residents of the Villa Balboa condominium complex next to the hospital. The homeowners have hired a team of experts to detail alternative building patterns that they say would preserve the residential atmosphere of the neighborhood and prevent the homes from becoming walled in by hospital structures.

Tonight’s meeting will be the third night of testimony on the hospital’s plan. Most involved with the process say the planning commissioners will not be ready to make a decision until the next meeting.

Other residents concerned about the plan, including the environmental group Friends of Cattail Cove, also plan to make presentations to the commission and may do so tonight or at the next meeting.

In addition, Hoag Hospital officials will be given time for rebuttal at a future meeting.

At issue is the hospital’s plans for future development, most of which is planned for a strip of land partly covered with cattail swamps next to Coast Highway.