Steam to be curbed at Hoag

Neighbors of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian said Thursday they were not satisfied with plans to curb plumes of steam and exhaust from a hospital power plant by one-third.

“Nobody was listening, and they didn’t care,” said Tarek Zeitoune, who has lived at the Villa Balboa condominium complex next to the hospital since 2000. “I really feel like we have no value in this city.”

The plumes are visible from Zeitoune’s balcony, he said.

The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s proposal to shift 225,000 square feet of building space from its lower to upper campus to build a 300,000-square-foot tower.

Hospital officials contend the tower will be used to house operating rooms and other critical care facilities the city needs.

More than 200 Newport residents attended the council meeting to ask city officials to make the hospital eliminate the smoggy plumes from the plant before the hospital gained approval for the plan.

The council voted to make the hospital reduce its usage of the plant by one-third during times when weather conditions make the plumes the most visible.

Residents wanted the hospital to replace the cooling towers with cleaner and quieter models.

“I think we found the balance of how to reconcile aesthetic needs of our neighbors and the operating needs of the hospital,” Hoag spokeswoman Debra Legan said. “We’re optimistic we can move forward now and have a continued good relationship with our neighbors.”

Legan said designs were already in the works to follow the council’s demand that emissions from the cogeneration plant be reduced, but she wasn’t sure when the plan would be implemented.

Residents said Thursday the city’s solution to reduce plant emission by one-third isn’t enough.

“They offered a few things that help a little bit, but really the wound is still open on the cogeneration plant,” said Erik Thurnher, co-chairman of the community groups Friends of Sunset View Park and the Villa Balboa-Hoag Liaison Committee. “We recognize this is a difficult problem for the city council and not a problem of their making.”

The council’s vote shortly before midnight capped months of dispute over what many residents consider environmental, sound and visual problems caused by the hospital.

A number of neighbors attended the meeting to urge Hoag to reduce emissions from its power plant and replace the plant’s cooling towers with quieter, cleaner models.

Hoag mostly got its way Wednesday, although the council amended the plan.

Hoag also will have to install plants or trellises on the roofs of any parking structures built on the lower campus and install newer and cleaner cooling towers if they need to be rebuilt, among other measures, Councilman Steve Rosansky said.

Rosansky has criticized Hoag for not being up-front about the emissions the plant would produce when the city first approved the project.

Ultimately, though, he voted in favor of the plan Wednesday.

“I wanted to acknowledge there was some compromise on their part, but I didn’t feel it was all they could have done,” he said.

Mayor Ed Selich, though, said he admired Hoag Hospital for its willingness to reduce its emissions.

“I think Hoag made a big gesture by agreeing to this reduction,” he said. “It shows they’re sensitive to the people who live next door to them.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected]. BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].