By Kirsten Farmer, The Beach Reporter
The proposed Healthy Living Campus project coming to Redondo Beach hit a milestone Wednesday night, Jan. 22.
After postponing the project for almost a year, the Beach Cities Health District unveiled a revised master plan for its 11-acre campus between Prospect Avenue, Flagler Lane and Beryl Street in Redondo Beach.
The first redevelopment plans for the site and 63-year-old former hospital building were presented in 2017.
Those plans were met with concerns from the community about potential traffic impacts, building heights, integration with the surrounding area, broad community benefits, intergenerational programming and more green space.
In January 2018, BCHD pressed pause on getting city approval and instead, listened to consultants and the community to make revisions.
“We’ve been working with the community for the last year to take a broader view of our Healthy Living Campus,” said CEO Tom Bakaly in a phone interview Jan. 23. “What we heard was people wanted it to be intergenerational … a sense of place where the community could connect and be connected to the neighborhood … a place where we could showcase our center of excellence program that we have around community health.”
The re-imagined plan, which will downsize the site from its current 705,549 square feet to 608,339 square feet, took into account more than 1,000 comments from 60 community meetings.
It incorporates the following changes from the original plan:
- 4-storied buildings instead of 6-7 story buildings
- Nixing a planned parking structure from the Flagler lot
- An increase in active green space, including the addition of rooftop gardens
- A decrease in the total number of assisted living units from 460 to 420 (60 of those are already onsite memory care units at Silverado)
- The addition of a community wellness pavilion
- The removal of campus access from Diamond Street
The new plan will also include a modernized center for health and fitness, 420 residential care units for seniors, a community presentation hall as well as flexible meeting spaces, a demonstration kitchen, rooftop gathering spaces and a cafe.
Bakaly said the proposed, reworked master plan presented Wednesday accomplishes the goals raised in the public outreach process and more, including mitigating impacts such as traffic.
“It’s a master plan that really looks at what the campus could be for the next several years,” he said. “Over the next few months, the board will decide whether this is a master plan that they want to move forward with and begin the Environmental Impact Review process.”
The community will be invited to give input on the fresh design concept at open houses slated for March, according to BCHD officials.
The next board meeting to consider initiating that EIR process will be March 27.
For more information, visit bchd.org/healthylivingcampus.
