Locals skeptical on wall

Residents of a condominium complex next to Hoag Hospital expressed concern Thursday over the hospital’s plans to build a plastic sound wall to shield them from loud trucks and mechanical equipment on the hospital grounds. Hoag officials presented plans for the wall Thursday night to the Newport Beach Planning Commission.

“I don’t think looking at a high wall would enhance my view at all,” said Villa Balboa resident Dorothy Holmes, one of several of Hoag’s neighbors who voiced skepticism about the wall Thursday.

Hoag has proposed a 6-inch thick plastic, insulation-filled sound wall that would be as high as 23 feet in some places as a response to noise complaints from residents at the Villa Balboa housing complex next to the hospital.

The residents say loud, idling trucks at Hoag’s loading docks and mechanical equipment cause noise problems at the Villa Balboa condominium complex.

Noise in the area regularly exceeds a 55-decibel city-imposed limit, according to a city-commissioned report on noise levels. Noise in some residential areas around the hospital reaches 67 decibels, according to the report. The hospital has asked the city for a 70-decibel limit in some areas during the daytime, or about as loud as a normal conversation.

Hoag could reduce the noise level for its neighbors at Villa Balboa by more than six decibels by building the sound wall, City Noise consultant Fred Greve said at the meeting, but a few residents said they worried the wall could be an eyesore.

The wall could be built as close as five feet from some Villa Balboa residents’ homes, said Dick Runyon, co-chair of the Villa Balboa-Hoag Liaison Committee.

“Looking at this wall, it may be five to eight feet from their doors with no light or air circulation coming through,” Runyon said.

Coralee Newman, a consultant for Hoag said many Villa Balboa residents who were not present at the meeting had expressed support for building the wall, and that the wall would not be built too close to the homes.

“They’re not walking out the door and facing a sound wall,” Newman said. “That’s not accurate.”

Hoag wants permission from the city to shift up to 225,000 square feet of building space from its lower campus, which stretches along Pacific Coast Highway to its upper campus bordering Newport Boulevard to build a new 300,000-square-foot tower there, but the residents of Villa Balboa first want the hospital to make amends for noise and air pollution they claim the hospital generates.

The reallocation of unbuilt space would allow the hospital to add more operating rooms and other care facilities.

Hoag officials also want some slack on city-imposed noise limits. In return for these requests, Hoag would give the city $3 million in development fees for the city to use on road improvements and other city projects.

The Planning Commission voted to continue the hearing until March 20.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].