Cathedral Hill hospital, Van Ness and Geary Streets (Approved) – San Francisco – 94109 – 3/20
Cathedral Hill hospital, Van Ness and Geary Streets (Approved) – San Francisco – 94109 – 3/20
Cathedral Hill hospital, Van Ness and Geary Streets
New CPMC Hospital Deal: Smaller Campus, But More Car Parking for Its Size
by Aaron Bialick
Local Map
The new plan for California Pacific Medical Center’s Cathedral Hill campus at Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard calls for a far less massive facility than originally planned, but the number of car parking spaces per bed will actually be higher.
A rendering of CPMC’s originally proposed 555-bed Cathedral Hill campus at Van Ness and Geary.
Under the new agreement announced by city supervisors yesterday, the size of the hospital will be cut nearly in half, from 555 beds to 304 beds. But the number of parking spaces included in its garage won’t be downsized at the same ratio, shedding only 210 of its 1,200 original spaces — a 20 percent reduction, according to the SF Examiner. So while the facility may bring in less car traffic as a whole, it will actually be more car-centric compared to the original plan.
“There’ll be a lesser impact on transit from traffic, but it’s only because they made the hospital smaller, not because they got any smarter about transportation,” said Livable City Executive Director Tom Radulovich.
Of the location at Van Ness and Geary, Radulovich says, “If you were going to pick a spot that’s not on Market Street where you could do the most damage to transit, Van Ness and Geary is pretty much it.”
The $14 million that CPMC has agreed to pay the SF Municipal Transportation Agency to help fund Van Ness and Geary Bus Rapid Transit projects was also reduced from the $20 million included in the development agreement as late as November, according to the Chronicle (though it’s still more than the $10 million Mayor Ed Lee originally asked for in 2011).
As for funding pedestrian and streetscape improvements, the agreement calls for the institution to provide $13 million — $5 million less than the mayor’s original ask. Those funds would go towards upgrades in both the Mission, where CPMC is also planning its now-upsized St. Luke’s hospital at Valencia and Cesar Chavez Streets, and the Tenderloin, where long-neglected pedestrian safety needs will only become greater as the Cathedral Hill campus induces more driving on the neighborhood’s streets. Whether or not parking will be added to the St. Luke’s campus, which has been upsized in the deal from 80 beds to 120, is unclear.
The original plan for a Cathedral Hill campus with 1,200 parking spaces estimated that it would bring 10,000 new daily car trips. A traffic analysis for the new configuration is not yet available.
According to a press release from the mayor’s office, “CPMC will institute a robust transportation demand management program to manage traffic congestion at hospital facilities and encourage use of public transit, including ongoing monitoring of traffic conditions around the Cathedral Hill campus.” However, the details of that program aren’t immediately available. CPMC’s transit incentive programs at its other campuses have not demonstrably curbed car commuting.
At their board meeting yesterday, city supervisors universally praised the new deal. The only mention of transportation issues came from Supervisor David Chiu, who gave an overview of the provisions, but didn’t specifically comment on them.
According to Chiu, access to the Cathedral Hill parking garage will be limited after 7 p.m. to drivers with hospital business. It’s unclear if the agreement still includes the mayor’s original proposal that CPMC pay the SFMTA 50 cents for each garage entry and exit during peak hours, and a 25-cent fee during off-peak hours.
Aaron Bialick is the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco and lives in the Inner Sunset.
Van Ness & Geary Campus
The site of the proposed Van Ness and Geary Hospital currently contains the Cathedral Hill Hotel and Office Building. The site occupies a full city block – bounded by Van Ness Avenue, Geary Boulevard, Franklin Street, and Post Street – and contains approximately 106,000 square feet of lot area. The existing hotel contains 445,000 gross square feet of floor area, is 10-stories above grade, and is 176 feet tall. The adjacent office building contains 210,000 gross square feet of floor area, is 11-stories above grade, and 180 feet tall. The site is located within the RC-4 Zoning District (Residential-Commercial, High Density), Van Ness Special Use District, Van Ness Automobile Special Use District, and 130-V Height and Bulk District. The property is owned by CPMC, and is currently closed for business.
The site of the proposed Van Ness & Geary Medical Office Building (MOB) is located on the east side of Van Ness Avenue, between Geary and Cedar Streets. The site contains seven parcels, totaling approximately 36,000 square feet of lot area. The existing structures contain a variety of ground floor commercial uses (most of which are vacant), with a total of five residential dwelling units and 20 residential hotel units above the ground floor uses. The MOB site is located within the RC-4 Zoning District (Residential-Commercial, High Density), Van Ness Special Use District, Van Ness Automobile Special Use District, and 130-V Height and Bulk District.
The proposed Van Ness & Geary Hospital is proposed to be an approximately 226-foot tall, 730,888-gsf, 274-bed acute-care hospital, with an underground parking garage. All vehicular access to the patient drop-off and parking levels will be mid-block from Geary Boulevard and Post Street, with emergency vehicle access from Franklin and Post Streets. CPMC is seeking LEED Certification for the Van Ness & Geary Hospital.
The proposed Van Ness & Geary MOB will be across Van Ness Avenue from the hospital (west side of Van Ness Avenue) bound by Van Ness Avenue, Geary, Cedar and Polk Streets. The MOB will be nine stories tall, approximately 130 feet tall, and will contain approximately 261,691 gross square feet of floor area along with an underground parking garage. This MOB will be internally connected to the hospital through an underground tunnel below Van Ness Avenue. The MOB is subject to San Francisco’s Green Building Ordinance, and will achieve a minimum of LEED Silver.
CPMC’s Van Ness & Geary campus (Hospital and Medical Office Building) will also include a Streetscape Master Plan in order to appropriately plan and design public realm improvements surrounding the campus.
Additional medical office space will be renovated within the existing building at 1375 Sutter Street, which is currently a mixture of retail and office space. There is no physical expansion proposed for this building.
Cathedral Hill Campus
• Demolish Cathedral Hill Hotel and 1255 Post St. office
building
• Build 555-bed, 15-story, 925,700square-foot acute care
and women and children’s hospital
• Build 245,000 square-foot underground parking garage
• Demolish seven buildings, including 16-unit SRO
• Build new 502,000-square-foot Cathedral Hill Medical
Office Building
• Build Van Ness Avenue tunnel
• Renovate 1375 Sutter St. building, currently medical and
general mixed use
Completion of the proposed Cathedral Hill Hospital in the near term would give CPMC the flexibility to consolidate currently duplicative services at existing CPMC campuses within the proposed hospital. The existing acute-care services and Women’s and Children’s Center at CPMC’s Pacific and California Campuses would be relocated to the proposed Cathedral Hill Hospital. Relocating these services would allow CPMC to (among other things) reenvision the focus of its existing campuses; meet state seismic safety mandates; improve the patient experience, safety, and medical outcomes; and provide adequate supportive medical office space.
CPMC would sell the California Campus by 2020, after relocating that campus’s inpatient services (i.e., care of all patients staying longer than 24 hours) to the proposed Cathedral Hill Hospital and its other services to the Pacific Campus. Some existing on-site medical activities would continue at the California Campus in a relatively small amount of space that CPMC would lease back from the new property owner indefinitely.
As proposed, the Cathedral Hill Hospital would be up and running in 2015. A public hearing on the project will be held by the Planning Commission on Thursday, September 23, 2010.
