PAMF's bait and switch

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), a subsidiary of Sutter Health, has proposed an 18-acre medical complex for San Carlos at Industrial Road and Holly Street. My group, San Carlos Citizens for Responsible Planning, has opposed this project because there is no need for another hospital in the area and certainly not in San Carlos. The infrastructure costs borne by the taxpayers and this large, nonprofit facility will forever change the small-town character of San Carlos, even without future expansions.

Recently, PAMF announced a smaller project than originally had been submitted to the city. I thought this was a step in the right direction, especially since the money in the Development Agreement (DA) between the city and PAMF has been increased. However, the more I look at the specifics, the more it seems to me that PAMF has been playing the classic "bait and switch” with the city of San Carlos.

My concerns are numerous:

1. The newest news from PAMF is that it made a "mistake” in counting the number of hospital beds in its proposal. It just increased 7 percent, from 91 to 97 beds.

What is the new estimated number of daily car trips that the facility would generate? This number is unclear given the changing plan and changing number of beds.

2. 33 percent reduction in doctors, 12 percent reduction in the number of beds and only a 9 percent reduction in the square footage — something doesn’t square here.

3. The original design for the San Carlos center was a handsome, mission-like campus, and now it is a simpler, big-box type building.

4. The city has stated that the plans PAMF has submitted will need some work — so we don’t even know what the final plans are.

5. The city has no mechanism for commercial design review, so we could end up with something totally different than what we have now, which is considerably different than what we started out with.

6. As an engineer, I know it is quite easy to design a building so that adding an extra floor could be done at little additional cost later in the life of the building. I wonder what PAMF has in store for us down the road. Most likely another increase in beds and more parking facilities.

Sutter Health has a reputation for shrewd, questionable business tactics. Sutter Health’s record in its treatment of low-income citizens is not good. My feeling is that PAMF/Sutter is playing the inadequate city system quite well.

Let’s back up for a moment. We know that the city will not use eminent domain on Holly Street to widen it. So we have no chance of having PAMF pay a part of that. We know that the Holly Street/101 interchange will need to be redone and will cost about $25 million. We also know that PAMF is a nonprofit land use and will certainly expand beyond the initial 18 acres. We know that if a project is not funded by the City in five years that PAMF is released from its obligation. We know that if a project does not start construction within 15 years that PAMF is released from its obligation. We know that the city has a chronic budget deficit every year. We know that the city is desperate for revenue. We know that the city has no serious plans to do much, if anything regarding PAMF’s impacts to the community in the near future.

Now, by my calculations, the Development Agreement between the city and PAMF should be no less than $2.5 million per year for 40 years, to ensure that the city has enough cash to pay for the above and other impacts PAMF would bring. PAMF has not yet approached this number. Hopefully, the continuing negotiations with PAMF will result in a fair deal for San Carlos.

Taken together, it seems to me that PAMF wants to do whatever it thinks is good for PAMF, and the city fails to obtain adequate guarantees that PAMF will actually perform all its obligations.

We simply don’t need PAMF in San Carlos for the headache impacts it would bring, the bait and switch tactics that do not inspire confidence, and the lack of an effective city process that would bring transparency to this currently murky picture and proper protection for the residents of San Carlos.

There remains much work to be done on this deal. Hopefully, the end result will help to lift the burden from the residents of San Carlos.

Sol Kutner is the chair of the San Carlos Citizens for Responsible Planning. He has lived in San Carlos for 32 years.