Kaiser hospital project advances on California Street

REDLANDS — A long-planned Kaiser Permanente hospital campus on California Street moved a step closer to reality Feb. 24 as the Redlands Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of a 36.5-acre medical center expansion.

The project, known as the Kaiser Redlands Medical Center Project, would transform Kaiser’s existing medical office site at 1301 California St. into a nearly 1 million-square-foot medical campus built in phases over several decades.

Commissioners voted 7-0 to recommend that the city council certify a final Environmental Impact Report, adopt required findings and a statement of overriding considerations, amend Concept Plan No. 1 and approve Planned Development No. 6, which establishes the master development plan for the campus.

Four-phase buildout

The proposal calls for development in up to four phases, with total buildout reaching approximately 983,000 square feet, including the existing 120,000-square-foot medical office building.

Plans include:

• A new 160,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center and medical office building.
• A 213-bed acute care hospital totaling about 400,000 square feet.
• A six-level parking structure and central utility plant.
• A third medical office building of about 83,000 square feet.
• A future hospital addition of up to 108 beds, bringing the total to 321 beds at full buildout.

While the hospital would include an emergency department, it would not be designated as a regional trauma center, meaning the most severe injury cases would continue to be routed to specialized trauma hospitals in the region.

According to Kaiser representatives, the first new building, an ambulatory surgery center, could be completed by about 2029, with the hospital phase anticipated roughly a decade later, depending on demand.

Environmental review

Because of the project’s scale, the city prepared a program-level Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act.

A program-level environmental impact report reviewed 35 criteria and found two “significant and unavoidable” impacts — greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled — largely tied to the traffic expected from a fully built-out hospital campus, though most other impacts were less than significant or mitigable. 

Commissioners recommended the City Council certify the EIR and adopt a statement of overriding considerations, concluding the project’s health care and economic benefits outweigh those impacts

Zoning and traffic

The site is designated commercial/industrial under the city’s general plan and lies within the East Valley Corridor Specific Plan, which designates the property for medical facilities.

As part of the project, Kaiser would fund and construct several roadway improvements, including widening portions of Almond Avenue, adding new driveways and installing a traffic signal on California Street before hospital operations begin. 

Although the project qualifies for an exemption from Measure U’s traffic level-of-service and socio-economic study requirements for hospital projects, the city commissioned a traffic study that concluded impacts could be addressed with the proposed improvements.

Long-awaited project

Kaiser first acquired the property in 1991 and built the existing three-story medical office building in 2008. A previous development agreement allowing phased construction expired in 2011 after the full campus was never built.

While voicing strong support for the hospital, commissioners stressed that transportation and climate impacts should be carefully monitored as each phase is approved, urging staff to ensure mitigation measures remain effective over the project’s decades-long buildout.

"As this project grows, it’s important to see how much of an impact it continues to have,” Commissioner Kawa Shwaish said, asking that environmental review remain embedded in each future phase.

The project now heads to the Redlands City Council for final consideration.