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Santa Clarita residents living east of Bouquet Canyon have limited access to medical facilities — something made clear when officials explored issues related to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital expansion in 2008, said Associate Planner Patrick Leclair.
“Developers have routinely ignored the east side of the city,” said Mark Oliver, a commercial developer with Canyon Hills Development LLC, the company paying for the project. “Valencia is where newer development has been built for the last 20 years.”
The City Council approved construction of the 108,000 square-foot medical building by a 5-0 vote at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The medical center will be located just north of the intersection at Via Princessa and Sierra Highway.
When built, it will be the largest outpatient medical building in the valley, Leclair said.
In 2007, Canyon Hills surveyed out-patient medical facilities, similar to the type being planned, and found that about 95 percent of dedicated medical buildings are near Valencia, west of Bouquet Canyon Road, Oliver said.
Santa Clarita officials discussed the need for medical services in Canyon Country during Henry Mayo Memorial Hospital’s expansion in 2008, Leclair said.
At the time, officials considered building a second hospital site on the east side of the valley but determined it wasn’t feasible because Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital had already invested substantial amounts of money in Valencia, according to Santa Clarita staff reports.
Canyon Hills will lease the facility to a hospital group that will staff the facility, Oliver said. Construction won’t begin until after a hospital group signs a long-term contract to staff the building, he said.
A deal should be in place sometime around October, Oliver said.
