A worst-case scenario could result in Morgan Hill City Council
facing a request to re-zone the former Saint Louise Hospital site
on Cochrane Road east of Hwy. 101
– again. The first time led to years of lawsuits and could very
well end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
A worst-case scenario could result in Morgan Hill City Council facing a request to re-zone the former Saint Louise Hospital site on Cochrane Road east of Hwy. 101 – again. The first time led to years of lawsuits and could very well end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Efforts to restock the former hospital building with medical services and physicians could be short-circuited by a private enterprise in the Morgan Hill Ranch, a business park west of Hwy. 101 now selling – not leasing – medical office space.
The Venture Corp. project, popular with doctors, could draw off enough money-making medical entities, such as MRI and an outpatient surgery center, to make the new DePaul Health Center less than viable.
The Saint Louise Medical Office Building has been renamed DePaul Health Center.
DePaul officials remain unfazed by the competition and plan to move full speed ahead on opening the center, according to Andrew Barna, director of strategic development at O’Connor Hospital, to which the Daughters of Charity, which owns the hospital building, have given the task of restocking.
While city officials and the Daughters say they are entirely behind a continuing medical use, alternative uses for the building have been bandied about including a rumored Catholic high school.
If hopes of revitalizing medical services in the old hospital building should die, the Daughters could sell it for a non-medical purpose. The building was previously almost sold to San Jose Christian College in 2000 but ran into zoning difficulties from the city, which led to the lawsuits.
Barna said the high school locating at the Saint Louise site is a recurring rumor that just won’t die.
“The site, at 26 acres is not big enough for a high school,” Barna said. Adding a piece of land between the hospital site and the freeway would probably be large enough, but the Daughters do not own it, he said.
Roberta Ward, spokeswoman for the San Jose Catholic Diocese, said Thursday that she had checked with diocese Superintendent of Schools Marian Stukey, and there was no chance.
“The rumor definitely has nothing to do with the hospital at all,” Ward said. “And there is nothing down there at any site.”
Before the economic bust took serious hold of area purses, the diocese held talks with the city about building a high school on land between Monterey Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard, north of Cochrane Road and quite near the Morgan Hill School District’s new Ann Sobrato High School. With an $86 million price tag for the complete Catholic high school campus proving too steep until rosier economic times, the diocese put the project on hold.
Before a new owner could turn the old Saint Louise building to a new use, council would have to approve a zoning change from medical to another use, which they have shown in the past, with SJCC, they do not want to do because, they have frequently said, they want to retain the building for medical services.
Several council members said they had not made up their minds about how they would vote on eventual rezoning the hospital or on the more likely Conditional Use Permit (CUP) Eves will need from the city to sell his industrial buildings for medical uses.
City Manager Ed Tewes said he would expect the council to view any subsequent zoning decisions as it did that of San Jose Christian College, in light of the general plan and medical service objectives.
When Saint Louise closed in 1999 and moved to Gilroy, most physicians, lab services and clinics followed it out of town. Since that time the council has invested $500,000 and untold time and energy into increasing the level of medical services but, until the O’Connor Hospital staff took over the doctor/service search in 2003, little headway was made.
Trying to force the city to reconsider, the college sued under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 – (RLUIPA).
The issue is the freedom of religious institutions to act as they wish under normal circumstances without governmental interference. The college claimed the city was in violation of RLUIPA, sued the city and lost. SJCC appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and lost again in March 2004 before a panel of three judges.
The college is requesting a hearing before the full 9th Circuit Court and, if denied or if it loses again, could take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Robert Eves, president of Venture Corp., said the surgical center is not necessary for the success of his project.
“It would also wonderful for DePaul to get it (the surgery center),” Eves said.
“Everyone acknowledges the urgent need (for medical services),” he said. “I don’t know what drives the economy of a medical center; I do know that it has been standing idle for four years and that despite the efforts of many talented people, nothing has happened.”
Eves asks if the people of Morgan Hill would rather have a surgery center at the new Venture Professional Center, operating by Christmas or would they rather wait and hope one might come to DePaul?
Barna said plans for DePaul include opening a surgical center within the next year, two at the absolute outside.
Eves stresses that he has not called a single doctor or medical lab looking for business.
“They all called me when they heard we had office space for sale,” Eves said.
“They want to own, not lease.” DePaul, as is traditional with medical centers, is on a lease-only basis.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy, a strong proponent of the DePaul effort and of refusing SJCC’s request for rezoning, said, of the two proposed sites for an outpatient surgery center, the preferred site is DePaul.
“Above all it’s important not to shoot ourselves in the foot by denying this (Eves’ project) early in process,” Kennedy said.
“Especially if DePaul can deliver within their one-year time frame.”
He said he would suggest a meeting between O’Connor, Eves and himself to discuss alternatives.
Eves said he would submit plans for his medical condominiums, called Venture Professional Center, to the planning department by today.
Details: www.morganhillranch.com/ Business condos: www.VentureCommerceCenter.com and medical condos: www.VentureProfessionalCenter.com
