OK Sought on Report for Hospital Project

Pushing forward with plans to expand Ventura County Medical Center, a county official has urged the Board of Supervisors to approve the project’s environmental impact report.

Public Works Director Arthur Goulet has asked the supervisors to certify the report after a public hearing today, a step needed to obtain state funding for the $50-million project.

“The state deadline is July 1,” Goulet said. “That’s not very far away.”

But residents on Agnus Drive next to the central Ventura hospital have strongly opposed the expansion, claiming it will mar their ocean view and create pollution and noise.

They also say the environmental report does not thoroughly examine alternative sites for the project. The expansion includes a full mental health hospital, a general outpatient clinic, a medical examiner’s office, a morgue and a parking garage.

“They could have designed that whole thing so it would not have impacted so seriously the residences on Agnus Drive,” said James M. Farley, a Ventura attorney who lives on the street. “The county decided that this is where they wanted it to go and to hell with everyone else.”

But Goulet said the county has agreed to relocate the tallest structure--the five-story parking garage--away from the residential area. The remainder of the complex, Goulet said, will pose few problems to the neighbors.

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. in the supervisors’ hearing room at the Ventura County Government Center.