Santa Clarita Planning commissioners are expected to make a decision Tuesday regarding the proposed expansion of Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital via multiple construction projects that include building a second inpatient tower.
The proposed development returns before commissioners for a third time, and they are expected to review the overall project before deciding whether it is ready to head to the City Council for a public hearing.
The expansion project would redesignate a portion of the hospital to make room for a second inpatient tower measuring 115,700 square feet in floor area and 80 feet in height, a new diagnostics and treatment facility that would measure 84,300 square feet in floor area and 60 feet high, as well as adding three above-ground stories to a parking structure to add 292 more parking spaces, according to proposed project details.
In building the two new facilities, the current main hospital building would serve for office, administrative and other support uses. The hospital’s main entrance is proposed for relocation at the front of the diagnostics and testing building, which would offer only outpatient services and support, and would not include the operation of any beds. The patient tower, which hospital officials envision adjacent to the diagnostics building, would include 92 inpatient beds from the existing main hospital and offer support services, public spaces and other facilities.
The project has met all findings as needed to be approved under the Unified Development Code, according to city staff. Those findings include that the development would not create a threat to public health and safety, would not have significant impacts on emergency services and would not alter the total number of beds located on the campus. Henry Mayo is permitted to have 368 beds, according to its master plan and development agreement with the city.
“As mentioned, it’s just not feasible to do much in the existing hospital space due to the constrained space, the older infrastructure that’s there and the high costs of trying to retrofit it,” Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation President Marlee Lauffer said to commissioners during the Dec. 1 meeting.
Upon finding that impacts from the project have “been substantially avoided or mitigated,” city staff has recommended that the expansion “will positively contribute to the provision of health care services for the Santa Clarita Valley’s existing and future population.”
The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled 6 p.m. Tuesday. To tune in, visit santa-clarita.com/agendas.
