MEDIATION SET FOR TODAY IN HOSPITAL SUIT EXPANSION: MISSION HILLS MEDICAL CENTER OFFICIALS FORESEE NO DELAY.

Byline: Rick Orlov

Staff Writer

A mediation conference is set for today on whether Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills will be allowed to go ahead with its planned $143 million expansion or be forced to conduct a detailed environmental study.

The required conference is an attempt to head off a trial after Superior Court Judge Tom McKnew rejected a request to throw out a case filed by a group of residents opposed to the expansion.

In November, the hospital's expansion plan won tentative approval from the Los Angeles City Council, paving the way for the hospital, without further study, to add more than 100 beds to the San Fernando Valley's badly stressed health-care system.

Hospital officials said Wednesday that the conference today will not affect expansion plans.

"This is not delaying our project," hospital spokesman Dan Boyle said. "We are still planning to go ahead with our groundbreaking next month."

Plans call for a four-story addition of nearly 120,000 square feet to the site at 15031 Rinaldi St. It will add 136 beds to the 254 beds now at the hospital.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who has said he wants a full environmental impact report on the expansion, said he is encouraged by the court's refusal to throw out the opponents' case. It could serve as a precedent under the California Environmental Quality Act, he said.

"If we are successful, it means that an elected body will have to approve the CEQA requirements and not an appointed panel like the Planning Commission," Alarcon said.

Several neighborhood groups joined in the opposition movement -- whose members call it Community Advocates for a Responsible Expansion, or CARE -- that was started by the Service Employees International Union.

Opponents cite concerns about the impact on the community, particularly on traffic and on parking at the hospital.

Holy Cross released a briefing memo to city officials, saying there is potential further legal action regardless of the outcome of any mediation.

"As hospitals are experiencing record-high patient cases, this expansion of beds and services ... will help to alleviate some of the tremendous pressure on hospital bed capacity and associated long patient waiting times," the memo says.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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