Neighborhood Pressure Forces Hospital to Abandon Plan for Hospice : Health: Neighbors contend that home for terminally ill patients would cause traffic problems and drive down property values.

The city’s largest hospital has called off plans to convert a four-bedroom house on a quiet cul-de-sac into a residence for terminally ill patients.

Officials at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital decided to seek another site after neighbors complained that a hospice on the cul-de-sac, formed by Davista Drive and Millou Lane, would drive down property values. Homeowners also contended that the site would bring too much traffic to their streets, which do not have lights or sidewalks.

“The hospice certainly wasn’t desirable here. Having bodies hauled in and out would have made the property values go down,” said Robert B. Kull, a retired businessman who lives across the street from the proposed hospice site at 8312 Davista Drive. Kull said he has lived on the street for 10 years.

The hospital purchased the home after surveying five nearby residents about a hospice and receiving favorable responses, spokeswoman Dee Burton said. But the five residents later joined about 35 other neighbors in the affected area to protest the hospice. She would not reveal what the hospital plans to do with the house.

Carmen Rivera was one of the five residents who changed her mind. Rivera, who lives across the street from the proposed hospice, said she decided to join the protest because she feared her 5-year-old granddaughter, who sometimes plays out in the street, would get hit as a result of the increased traffic.

Burton said hospices operate as normal residences and would be hard to distinguish from other houses in the neighborhood. She said occupants may include patients with AIDS.

Homeowners argued, however, that they would have been required to tell prospective buyers that a hospice was located on their street.

“It is a fact that many people feel uncomfortable with the idea of death and dying, therefore, such notice to prospective buyers would certainly have an impact on the success of any sales,” they said in a letter to hospital officials.

Hospital officials would not comment further on purchasing the home. But homeowner Ron Cobine, who led the neighborhood protest, said officials told him the house was the only single-story four-bedroom residence available in their price range in Whittier.

Cobine said he initially appealed to city officials to intervene, but was told that hospices are permitted in such neighborhoods under state law as long as there were no more than six residents.

The previous owner of the house, Billie Copen, said she would have welcomed a hospice next to her home. “I understand their concerns but I think they really jumped the gun,” Copen said. “I’m really surprised that the hospital bowed down to the pressure.”