Publication Date: Friday, January 30, 2004
COMMUNITY
Medical foundation outgrowing its space
Medical foundation outgrowing its space
(January 30, 2004) Plans for outpatient building finally moving forward
by Don Kazak
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation has made headlines for its plans to expand to Redwood City or San Carlos, but there was still some unfinished business in its hometown.
This week the foundation won approval from the planning commission for a new, 41,000-square-foot outpatient building on its main campus, which provides primary health care to more than half of Palo Alto's residents.
Plans for that building were part of the 1997 city approval process of its large campus off El Camino Real near downtown, but when the foundation was finally ready to move forward a challenge was issued by an adjacent property owner.
The city's Planning and Transportation Commission rejected that appeal on a 5-1 vote Wednesday night, clearing the way for the proposed clinic building and parking garage to go to the City Council for final approval.
The medical foundation relocated to its present campus in 1997 after setting up shop south of downtown for almost 70 years.
"We are at capacity in Palo Alto," said Jill Antonides, director of public affairs for the medical foundation. She said the patient visits at the large, 305,000-square-foot campus have been growing at 7 percent a year, reaching 800,000 patient visits in 2002. By comparison, the medical foundation had 584,000 patient visits in 1992.
At the current growth rate, she said, the foundation's patient population will double in the next 10 years.
Although planning commission members brushed aside the last remaining obstacle, they also expressed some concerns over the three-story, 41,000-square-foot building and a four-story parking garage.
"New buildings of this size are always difficult (to approve)," said commission member Phyllis Cassel. "The EIR (environmental impact report) did anticipate this building and the parking garage would be coming along."
Commission member Karen Holman voted against rejecting the appeal after raising questions about the parking garage and the visual impacts of the new buildings, especially as viewed from across Alma Street.
Alan Rogers, the property owner who filed the appeal, argued the new parking wouldn't be adequate for the building and was poorly located.
The medical foundation's David Jury explained that all patient parking is in the existing underground parking garage, shared by patients and employees, and some employee parking will be shifted to the new above-ground parking garage.
Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com
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