Public Comment on the Healthy Living Campus

In 2023, four Board meeting agendas have included a CEO report with a section devoted to the Health Living Campus (HLC). In January through March, the HLC segments of the report were obviously identical:

Healthy Living Campus (HLC): Now that our development partner is on board, we plan to submit a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application within the next 3-6 months. This is taking a little longer than planned because we are trying to address feedback we have heard from the community as we prepare the application. The CUP application will be at the very least consistent with impacts discussed in the certified Environmental Impact Report. Attached to the CEO report is a report that tracks progress of the Healthy Living Campus and shows schedules, financial information, and the status of mitigating impacts as requested by the Board.

For April, the draft CEO Report adds some material as to the proposed land lease but also repeats the assertion that addressing community feedback is “taking longer than planned.”

(One wonders what might be meant by a CUP application being “at the very least consistent” with the EIR, particularly since the EIR ignores or misleads readers as to floor area restrictions on the C-2 lot. ) I see no way to read such remarks other than as a claim that BCHD’s response to community feedback has delayed the HCL project and the associated permits, including the conditional use permits that will be needed. In other words, apparently the CEO argues that the delay is due to the effort to accommodate changes proposed by the community. Isn’t this blaming the community for the delay? Does this not imply that BCHD will actually alter the HLC plan in a way that responds to community feedback? We will see, sooner or later.

Meanwhile, the Health Living Campus Update (February 2, 2023) included this claim:
BCHD is working with WRC PMB Redondo Beach, our partner for the development and the operation of the Campus, to refine the Phase 1 campus plans and finalize our application for a conditional use permit with the City of Redondo Beach. This is expected in the next 3-6 months. Similar to other projects that apply for a conditional use permit, the public will be able to access the plan when it is submitted to the City.

In other words, even though BCHD’s CEO specifically claims to be using community feedback to adjust HLC plans prior to submitting its applications for permits, the District will not disclose how (or even whether) it has made any changes responsive to community feedback until it has formally applied for the needed permits.

And, of course, to suggest that the public will be able to access the plan after it is filed as is the case for “other projects” seems deliberately misleading. The vast majority of conditional use permits do not propose to use public property and taxpayer dollars to design and operate proposed public facilities. Thus, it sure looks like BCHD is merely claiming it is responding to community feedback while denying the community—and community taxpayers—any information as to how it will community feedback to improve its applications.
Accordingly, I ask the BCHD Board of Directors to direct that the District will immediately disclose community feedback regarding the HLC and the specific changes that are being made to the applications to be submitted later this year.

Thank you,

Tim Ozenne, Ph.D.