Hoag, neighbors talk on expansion

Two years after opening the Sue and Bill Gross Women's Pavilion — what hospital officials have called the first major milestone in its expansion — Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian continues to redevelop its campus while working with Newport Beach officials and neighbors to update its plan.

In the next 10 years, Hoag plans to build its new Neuroscience Institute as well as bring more outpatient services to its campus.

But in order to stay its course, the hospital is looking to transfer up to 250,000 square feet of its previous allotted entitlements from its lower campus to the upper campus. The hospital has abandoned a request to expand by almost 30,000 square feet.

The hospital wants "to restructure the campus so buildings on the upper campus are inpatient services and the ones on the lower campus are for outpatient services," Hoag spokeswoman Debra Legan said. "That way it'll separate the traffic — people coming in and out of the lower campus are coming for outpatient services and we can concentrate the inpatient care on the upper campus."

Hoag, which shares a property line with the Villa Balboa Condominiums, held a meeting at the community's clubhouse Wednesday night to present its plan for redevelopment, as well as to try to alleviate any concerns neighbors might have.

Some of the issues for Villa Balboa residents include noise coming from the hospital's loading dock, senior planner James Campbell said, "And there's the emergency power plant…. We're working very hard to reduce the noise levels there."

About 60 residents attended the meeting at which Legan and representatives from Government Solutions Inc., the consulting firm hired to help Hoag better communicate with neighbors, presented the hospital's solutions to noise, smoking at a nearby park, construction and views.

"It was the first time in 25 years Hoag has put on a presentation like this," Mary Petropoulos said during a break in the meeting. "Government Solutions is really a class act, but that parking structure is still bad."

Other residents were similarly concerned with the proposed parking structure that will be just east of the Cancer Center.