NEWPORT BEACH : Hospital Asks Coastal Panel to Delay Vote

Hoag Hospital officials have asked the California Coastal Commission to delay consideration of the hospital’s long-range expansion plans until next month.

The controversial proposal to construct hospital facilities on about two acres of cattail-choked wetland near Coast Highway has generated opposition from the planning staff at the Coastal Commission, which has recommended that the full commission reject the plan.

“We were shocked at the staff recommendation to deny this project,” said Peter Foulke, senior vice president at Hoag Hospital. As a result, the hospital asked the Coastal Commission on Tuesday to delay consideration of the blueprint for the future expansion of the hospital. The panel was scheduled to vote on it at its Tuesday meeting.

Foulke said the hospital is not planning to change the plan before next month’s hearing but will try “a different approach” in the way it is presented in the hope the commissioners will approve it. The project was approved unanimously by the Newport Beach City Council in May, 1992.

The plan sets the parameters for the expansion of Hoag Hospital into a regional medical center within the next 25 years. Though the plan does not lay out specific building designs and functions, it does outline building size and density. The estimated cost of creating the medical center has not been determined.