Lengthy discussions of a key component of the Stanford hospital expansion have concluded, marking a crucial milestone for the project.

The Palo Alto City Council held a meeting on Monday, July 26 for final discussion of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) concerning the University’s Medical Center Facilities Renewal and Replacement Project. The City Council’s Planning and Transportation Commission has been holding meetings to discuss different chapters of the report over the past two months, and Monday’s meeting was the last in the series, focused on a review of the report’s Alternative Chapter and Mitigation Measures.

The DEIR is a report written by PBSJ, an environmental, architecture and program management company that Palo Alto had selected to be its consultant for the University’s Medical Center project. PBSJ had been producing the report since August 2007.

California requires submission of these reports in order to oversee how major construction projects would affect their environment.

The Medical Center’s construction project involves a $3.5-billion plan to be implemented over the next 20 years. It would expand the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and reconstruct the main Stanford Hospital at 300 Pasteur Drive, the School of Medicine, as well as two buildings of office space for community practitioners. Along with the buildings, the facilities will be renovated to meet seismic safety standards.

Overall, 1.3 million square feet will be added to the Medical Center, which is surrounded by Sand Hill Road, Vineyard Lane, Quarry Road and Pasteur Drive, and which includes Welch Road and Blake Wilbur Drive.

The chapters of the DEIR discussed in the City Council’s meeting identified the impacts of the project and proposed mitigation measures through seven alternative plans. Among the issues addressed were traffic, air quality, preservation of historic buildings and meeting the criteria of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in renewing the Medical Center.

With regards to traffic, the DEIR asserted that expanding the Medical Center would have more employees and clients as daily commuters, leading to an increase in traffic in the area. After studying various routes, street segments and intersections, PBSJ foresaw that congestions could also affect neighboring cities such as Menlo Park. Emissions would also increase, damaging the air quality, and noise levels would affect surrounding neighborhoods. In response, PBSJ proposed in the DEIR a “Village Concept Alternative,” suggesting that housing be provided in the vicinity for new employees to reduce traffic.

Another possible alternative to the original project was the preservation of a historic building, the Stone Building Complex. The complex, constructed in 1959, was where Norman Shumway performed the first heart transplant in the United States. In the University’s plan, the complex would be taken down for the expansion of the Medical Center. The alternative plan in the DEIR, termed the “Historic Preservation Alternative,” hoped to keep the Stone Building Complex intact.

The main concern of the DEIR regarding the environment was the preservation of the “aesthetically and biologically significant protected trees at Kaplan Lawn, the FIM 1 Grove and along Welch Road.” The University was in favor of the alternative that aimed to preserve the trees, as the plans were very similar to the original ones. This “Tree Preservation Alternative” proposed relocating some trees and avoiding the construction of a hospital module on Kaplan Lawn.

In addition to discussing the Alternatives Chapter and Mitigation Measure of the DEIR, the council meeting disclosed public comments on the expansion project and its alternatives, with arguments typically centering on the relative importance of specific criteria, such as traffic or historical preservation.

The period for the City Council to accept public comments on the project ended on Tuesday, July 27. After discussing the DEIR, Palo Alto will now put together a final Environmental Impact Report that will be brought back to the Council in late fall.