New Sutter Santa Rosa hospital clears hurdle

<p>The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday tentatively approved Sutter Health's proposed hospital north of Santa Rosa off Mark West Springs Road. </p><p>The 5-0 straw vote came after more than three hours of public testimony featuring dozens of sticker-clad supporters and sign-wielding opponents of the facility slated for 25 acres just north of the Wells Fargo Center. </p><p>The vote, which also certified the environmental impact report on the project, signaled that supervisors are likely to give Sutter a green light in an Aug. 17 hearing on its health care access agreement with the county and in a final wrap-up hearing on the project Aug. 24.</p><p>Supervisors said the decision, after years of study and several different proposals by Sutter, cleared an important hurdle in securing a new medical care facility for all county residents. </p><p>“The process is not perfect,” said Supervisor Shirlee Zane. “(But) I think we've arrived in a pretty good place.”</p><p>Sacramento-based Sutter Health took over the county's Community Hospital on Chanate Road in 1996 and has been pushing for a new facility for years to comply with state seismic safety standards. </p><p>The site near the Wells Fargo Center, which Sutter purchased from the Luther Burbank Foundation in 2006 for $10 million, was judged the best location for various reasons, Mike Cohill, vice president of Sutter Health, told the board Tuesday. </p><p>Unlike more than two dozen alternative locations in the Santa Rosa area, it was large enough, had good access from Highway 101, a clear flight path for helicopters and presented few immediate environmental problems.</p><p>The environmental impact report authors, who conducted in-depth examinations of four other sites, concluded the Mark West Road site would have equal if not better access for patients and employees than the Chanate campus, Cohill and county officials said.</p><p>“There was nothing rushed about the decision to locate the project here,” he said.</p><p>Opponents sought to persuade the board that site is too far from low-income and elderly populations and planned SMART rail service, and that it encroaches upon county-protected open space dividing Santa Rosa and Windsor.</p><p>“What you have here today is not the best possible solution,” said Scot Stegeman, a Sonoma County environmental consultant. “It is subpar.”</p><p>But supporters, including Sutter employees, local health clinic representatives and some community leaders, hailed the project as a forward-looking medical center that will be accessible to all.</p><p>“This project hits all the bases,” said Cynthia Murray, president of the North Bay Leadership Council.</p><p>Much of Tuesday's discussion and testimony on land use focused on transit and traffic issues. Upon final project approval, Sutter will be required to make more than $2 million in road improvements in the area and pay more than $300,000 in traffic impact fees, according to the county. Sutter Health will pay $1.3 million in traffic fees but eventually will be reimbursed $1 million. </p><p>Staff members revised their calculations Tuesday on the projected greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Using a different state standard, they project that if the hospital is eventually expanded by 27 beds it would produce 674 metric tons a year over the emissions limit, not 2,734 tons as earlier reported. </p><p>Supervisors accepted a staff recommendation to either collect a $185,000 emissions mitigation fee from Sutter that would be put toward a public project such as bike path, or require an equivalent investment in renewable energy at the Sutter site. </p><p>Sutter also will be required to add two bus stops near the hospital entrance and coordinate with county and city officials on expanding bus service to the area, which critics say is lacking. </p><p>To ensure the sewage will not add to the volume of wastewater, Sutter will pay more than $600,000 for water-saving home retrofits, an offset equivalent to covering nearly 800 single-family houses. </p><p>Cohill, the Sutter official estimated the mitigation for the project alone amounted to $5.6 million. Combined with environmental studies and work on the health care access agreement, total costs in the approval process are $11.8 million, he said.</p><p>Supervisor Paul Kelley, who called the environmental impact report “sufficient and exhaustive,” said the investment showed Sutter's hospital would be a boon for the county.</p><p>“We have a company that is willing to expend that kind of effort and money,” he said. “I don't think we can discount that.”</p><p>Supervisor Efren Carrillo, meanwhile, took issue with advocates for the needy, who said Tuesday that the low-income and elderly would be better served by a hospital in their immediate vicinity.</p><p>“I just can't agree with that,” Carrillo said, noting that many low-income residents live in Roseland, an area he represents. “This is a county-wide hospital.</p><p>“Sutter has been a pretty good partner in trying to improve quality of life in this county,” he said. “They're making a very important capital investment at a time, frankly, when it is most needed.”</p>