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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

October 14, 2005

Hospital to study six-acre site

At a contentious special meeting Monday, the hospital's board approved spending $25,000 plus expenses to study a six-plus acre site on West MacArthur and Fifth Street West, and also utilizing the present hospital site.

But critics of the hospital board weren't happy with the resolution because it included the proposed medical office building in the study.

A majority of the standing room only crowd seemed to be against putting a new hospital on Arnold Drive and wanted the board to put the hospital on a smaller site in town.

Boardmember Mike Smith proposed the study, but didn't want the medical office building included in the study. He also asked that the board hire a different architectural firm rather than have the hospital's architectural firm, Anshen and Allen, conduct the study.

"If we have a study that people don't like, we're wasting our money, Smith said.

Marilyn Goode, one of the board's critics, said that Anshen and Allen have a conflict of interest in the study and presented the board with a letter calling for an independent firm to do the study.

"I want an independent study done with an independent firm," she said.

Lu Bensen, who co-authored the letter with Goode, also called for an outside firm to do the study and said, "Anshen and Allen will get a larger commission on a larger building."

Arnold Riebli, who ripped into the board earlier in the meeting for being "unprofessional," and "speaking down to the audience," questioned whether the board should instead consider a parcel tax if it downsized the hospital from its proposed 150,000 square feet.

Speaker after speaker ripped into the board for seeking an Arnold Drive site and pushed for a smaller site in town. A representative from the Greenbelt Alliance read a lengthy statement expressing environmental concerns about a site on Arnold Drive. They were many of the same concerns that a representative from the Sonoma Ecology Center expressed at the previous meeting.

Smith said a study that Anshen and Allen conducted in 1998 said a new facility could be built on the six-plus acre site, and parts of the present hospital could be used for non-OSHPD facilities.

OSHPD is the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development that oversees seismic safety in the state's hospitals.

"I have no way of knowing whether it's possible or not, but I want an independent attitude," Smith said. "Someone with no viewpoint."

But the rest of the board didn't have a problem with having Anshen and Allen do the study.

"I have no difficulty in Anshen and Allen or another firm adapting the footprint to a smaller site," said boardmember Dick Kirk. "Can it be configured in six acres?" he asked.

Board chairman Mike Nugent said, "I'll vote for the smallest piece of land to build a viable hospital, whether that is in town or out of town. If we have to go up six stories to put it on an acre, I'll vote for it."

John MacConaghy, another boardmember, pledged to keep an open mind on the six-acre site. "But I think Anshen and Allen is being unfairly tarred," he said. "They've done just what we wanted them to do."

But the board deadlocked in a 2-2 tie, with Phyllis Carter absent, on the motion to exclude Anshen and Allen from doing the study.

Because the motion didn't pass, the study will be done by Anshen and Allen for $25,000 plus expenses.

Smith was also unhappy the medical office building was included in the study. "The medical office building will preclude us from building (on the site)," he said. "If the board is going to continue with the medical office building, the results are predictable and we won't be able to do it."

Kirk offered a motion to exclude the medical office building from the study, but MacConaghy said the building is needed on site. "It needs to be adjacent to the hospital," MacConaghy said. "We need to compare apples to apples."

The motion to include the medical office building in the study passed 3-1 with Nugent, MacConaghy and Kirk voting for and Smith voting against.

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