News
Palo Alto Medical Foundation Reveals Modified Size, Design for Sunnyvale Medical Center
Downsized Building, Parking Structure to be Proposed to City Planning Commission and City Council
Mountain View, Calif., April 20, 2009 - The Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s (PAMF) plans for a 150,000-square-foot medical center for Sunnyvale have been revised, the foundation announced today.
“We’ve heard many ideas and concerns expressed by the immediate neighborhood and broader community – and we’ve listened,” said Richard Slavin, M.D., president of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Camino Division. “When we present our project proposal to the Sunnyvale Planning Commission and City Council, the plan they see will differ significantly from our original plan.”
As part of PAMF’s on-going community outreach efforts, foundation representatives hosted several neighborhood meetings regarding the Sunnyvale rebuild, at which neighbors voiced concerns about the height of the proposed medical center and parking structure, traffic and parking. As a result of feedback from Planning Commission, City Council members and city staff, combined with community concerns, the project proposal that PAMF will present to the Sunnyvale Planning Commission and City Council will be downsized from the previously proposed project.
“We want to be a good neighbor by incorporating suggestions from the neighborhood, while also designing a world-class medical center that meets the needs of our patients,” said Dr. Slavin.
PAMF Reveals Modified Plan
Building Dimensions Reduced
PAMF re-evaluated the architectural designs and has eliminated 30,000 square feet total from the medical center. The proposal PAMF will present to the Sunnyvale Planning Commission will be for a 120,000-square-foot medical center with two full stories (103,500 sq. ft.) at a height of 38 feet, and a pavilion in the center of the building (16,500 sq. ft.) at a height of 52 feet to house obstetrics and gynecology services . The adjusted total square footage now proposed is 120,000 square feet, reduced from the 150,000 sq. ft. initially proposed.
“We reduced the size of the proposed medical center by eliminating 30,000 square feet that was dedicated to the Vision Care Center,” said David Jury, PAMF’s vice president of Support Services and Project Development. “This was not an easy decision to reach but this valuable medical service is the least reliant on primary care and ancillary services, like the laboratory, to be housed at this site. A search for an alternate site for this important department will begin shortly.”
As originally planned, PAMF will offer primary and cancer care services, a full-service laboratory, and a digital imaging department with MRI, CT can and X-ray services all in one location at 301 Old San Francisco Road. Most of the physicians will provide primary care -- family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.
By reducing the size of the clinic, PAMF was able to reduce the size of the proposed parking structure from four to two levels at a total height of 16 feet. There will also be two floors of patient parking under the clinic. This modified plan allows for the city’s required five parking stalls for every 1,000 square feet of the medical clinic, so the smaller structure will still eliminate the historic parking shortage and mitigate concerns from neighbors about cars parking in the surrounding neighborhood.
Planning Commission and City Council Meetings
The date for presenting the PAMF proposal to the Sunnyvale Planning Commission is Monday, May 18. If the Planning Commission approves the plan, PAMF will present its proposal to the City Council on Tuesday, June 9.
“While we are disappointed that the Sunnyvale Center will not be everything we had hoped, it will be a world-class medical facility, which will continue our 55 year history in Sunnyvale and provide primary and cancer care services to Sunnyvale residents and other local communities for many decades to come,” Jury said.
Contact
Cynthia Greaves
PAMF Public Affairs
greavec@pamf.org
(650) 934-8614