Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Plan for County Hospital in Lancaster Moves Forward

Construction of the first phase of a $156-million Los Angeles County hospital here is expected to be completed in about two years.

The Lancaster City Council, in a 4-0 vote with Councilman Frank Roberts absent, Monday approved a series of agreements with Los Angeles County paving the way for development of the hospital.

The county Board of Supervisors must also approve the agreements, and is expected to do so in January.

The hospital will be built on 74 acres at Avenue I and 30th Street West and will replace the county’s aging High Desert Hospital, a 33-year-old facility originally built to provide care for county jail inmates suffering from tuberculosis.

Project manager Tim Moore said the county began planning for a new hospital in 1989 to serve Antelope Valley residents. Lancaster got involved through a 1992 agreement between the city’s redevelopment agency and the county that will also result in new and expanded county facilities, such as a library, courthouse and sheriff’s station.

Construction of the library has already begun and groundbreaking for the sheriff’s station is expected early next year. Details involving the courthouse remain to be worked out.

Lancaster is buying the land for the hospital for $11.1 million. The county will pay the city $9.9 million for the land and also give the city a 40-acre parcel at Avenue H and 40th Street West, the site originally planned for the hospital, which is estimated to be worth $1.2 million.

The first phase of the new High Desert Hospital will be a $22-million perinatal center offering obstetric services and care for newborns. The three-story, 90,000-square-foot facility is expected to provide 200 full-time jobs.

A $134-million medical center with several buildings totaling 450,000 square feet is considered the second phase of the project. Construction is not expected to be completed until 1999.