Scores speak out against new VA hospital site

Opposition to a Brownsboro Road site for a new Louisville Veterans Affairs medical center was still strong among about 250 to 300 people who turned out for two public meetings Tuesday to discuss a new environmental study of potential sites.

But about $30 million already has been spent on the project, including $12.9 million to purchase the Brownsboro Road site. "We need to move forward," said Martin Traxler, director of Louisville's current Robley Rex VA Medical Center on Zorn Avenue.

Nearly all those who signed up to speak during a formal comment period at both afternoon and evening sessions were opposed to the Brownsboro site, and their remarks prompted frequent applause.

Metro Council member Angela Leet said Tuesday evening that the selection process "has been flawed since 2009" and that she would take the blame for further delay if the selection process were reopened – after the replacement of the current VA hospital was proposed 10 years ago.  She also read a statement from Metro Council member Marianne Butler advocating a site downtown or in west or south Louisville "where development is greatly needed."

Pat Roles, a resident of nearby Northfield whose husband is a Marine veteran, carried a sign with a heart next to the word "Veterans" but with a message that read "Stop the Hospital." She also favors putting the hospital in west or south Louisville, saying "there's very little public transportation to this part of town" and that the six-story buildings would "dwarf" the city of Crossgate.

Randy Strobo, an attorney representing Crossgate next to the site at 4906 Brownsboro, said his law firm has made a formal request for an extension of the period for public comment – which is scheduled to end Dec. 12 – to allow more time to put together comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that was discussed at the meetings at Christ Church United Methodist Church, 4616 Brownsboro, west of the VA's "preferred" hospital site.

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Among the issues he is assessing are "intensity and density," and he contended the site "leaves no room for growth and expansion." Strobo also said there are "obvious environmental justice issues" and to say that the hospital would have no appreciable impact is "absurd."  VA officials have outlined various mitigation measures that they say will offset effects related to noise, traffic, pollution and other issues. They emphasize that the state plans an improved single-point urban interchange at I-264 and U. S. Highway 42 next to the Brownsboro site.

Others who spoke suggested other sites, including the Russell neighborhood west of Ninth Street where the Beecher Terrace public housing development is slated to be demolished and specific tracts where projects to build a Wal-Mart and the Louisville Food Port were canceled.  Veteran James William Elder promoted the former site of the Iroquois Homes public housing development in south Louisville that he said is already equipped with utility connections next to the Watterson Expressway.

"I'm one veteran that's not afraid to go downtown," said Kyle Ellison. The Brownsboro site would be inconvenient for a large number of people, Ellison said, adding that a military axiom about "strength in numbers" should apply to the hospital site – which should be located next to other medical facilities.

The EIS also looked at the VA's second choice: the St. Joseph site on Factory Lane near Old Henry Road near I-265, which would have required more traffic improvements, but speakers said that was a wasted effort because the site is slated for private development. The study also was required to assess a "No Action" alternative of continuing to use the current Robley Rex VA Medical Center site at 800 Zorn Avenue, but speakers also said more effort should have been made to assess new possibilities there.

Fred Johnson, a disabled vet with 29 years of service, said at the evening session that VA officials didn't seriously consider south or west Louisville and that "the biggest threat to national security is wasted government dollars."

Veteran Shelby Taylor advocated a smaller, critical care VA hospital downtown, where other doctors "are two minutes away" and "super clinics" in the Brownsboro area, on Dixie Highway and elsewhere.

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Developer Gill Holland, who lost a bid for a Metro Council seat in the recent election, said he favored putting the hospital in another part of town where it could have a "huge positive economic impact, as opposed to driving down property values" in the upscale Brownsboro Road area. He questioned why the city has not done an economic impact study.

Despite the continued opposition to the Brownsboro Road site, revolving especially around traffic concerns, Traxler told reporters before the meeting that VA officials anticipate moving forward to finalize the choice of the Brownsboro location.

VA officials are required under law to solicit and consider public comments and revise the new draft impact statement to reflect what is said during a public comment period that's scheduled to end Dec. 12, but there would have to be new evidence that changed their minds about the "preferred" site in order to change course.  The differences between the current 64-year-old Louisville hospital on Zorn Avenue and the one proposed are "stark," with the new one designed to "offer care well into the next 50 years," Traxler said.

Two parking garages planned at the Brownsboro site also would accommodate as many as 3,000 vehicles, and the Veterans Benefits Administration building also would be there.

Traxler was joined by George Odorizzi, the project manager with the U. S. Department of Veterans Affair's Office of Construction and Facilities Management regional office in Chicago, who said about $30 million has already been spent on the Louisville hospital project, including the money spent to buy the Brownsboro site. Under the current timetable – if the public comment period is not extended – the release of the final impact statement is targeted for January 2017 followed by a decision on the site no sooner than 30 days later.

Under that scenario, provided more money is appropriated, construction could start in the fall of 2018 and be completed in 2022, and the hospital would open in 2023.

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While veteran James Downing said, "All of us agree that something needs to be done about the hospital," he had quite different views from some others at the meeting about the Brownsboro Road site versus downtown, which he said is prone to flooding. Brownsboro is "more centrally located," he said. "I won't go downtown for any reason. It's too crowded."

Anne Stanley Hoffman, who lives in Crossgate, said trying to get answers to questions about hospital site deliberations has been "very frustrating. It's been a long road."

Sandra Leonard, a Prospect city council member, said her veteran husband went to the VA hospital for several years before he died two years ago. A new one "should have been built a long time ago," she said.

Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061 and melson@courier-journal.com.  Follow her on Twitter at @MarthaElson_cj.