Monterey hospital to add parking

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula has outgrown its parking capacity and just received the OK from the city of Monterey to add 177 spaces.

The final approval needs to be made by the California Coastal Commission since the property at Highway 1 and Holman Highway lies within the Coastal Zone. Community Hospital anticipates the project being completed by next year.

Brenda Moore, the assistant director of communications for Community Hospital, said the spaces will be near the Carmel Hill Professional Center next to the hospital.

“We have outgrown our parking capacity, making it challenging at times for patients, doctors and staff to park,” Moore said. “These (new) spaces would be used by staff and doctors working at the hospital or in the medical and business offices in the professional center.”

CHOMP has what Moore

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describes as a “robust” alternative transportation program. Employees are offered shuttles and have the opportunity to receive incentives for carpooling, riding mass transit, riding

bicycles or other modes of transportation.

“Even with that, we need additional space,” she said.

As with any construction project, there is the potential for environmental harm. The action the city took last week was to approve what’s called a mitigated negative declaration, which means that

Community Hospital has mitigated, or taken measures to avoid, impacts to a point where there are no significant impacts on the environment.

When the project came before the Monterey Planning Commission — an advisory body to the city council — few concerns were expressed and they pertained to the effect on views, but planning staff assured commissioners that the impact would be minimal. The commission unanimously approved the project and recommended the council follow suit, which it did on July 7.