Coalition Threatens to Halt VA Research Center

By Carol Dimmick

A coalition of four local organizations put the VA Medical Center on notice in September that it will file a lawsuit to stop the medical center from building a new 200,000-square-foot research center at its Fort Miley site if the VA continues to violate federal laws.

Gene Brodsky, a member of the board of directors for the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR) who is acting as counsel for the coalition, delivered the message in a letter dated Sept. 13 to Sheila Cullen, the VA Medical Center's director.

In the letter he accused the VA's administration of ignoring two federal statutes requiring it to identify and register historic structures built in the 1930s on the old Fort Miley site near Land's End.

He also said the VA has turned a blind eye to public process requirements to consult with state and local officials on the impact the new research center and a master landscaping plan, now under development, could have on the historic structures.

But top officials for the Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE), a nonprofit medical research institute at the VA that serves as a research foundation and a partner at the proposed research center, say they have already taken steps to correct concerns raised by the coalition.

Jack Nagan, chief executive officer of NCIRE, says he is in the process of hiring a reputable historical organization with solid credentials to assess the VA's buildings. He expects results in three to four months.

"We are doing some concrete things to show them there is a different outlook," Nagan said.

While Nagan did not dispute the coalition's charges, he emphasized that the VA is under a new administration that is committed to solving any problems that may arise by working with its neighbors.

"There has been a complete change in leadership. These are very different people," he said.

Traffic, Parking and Noise and Need for Center Questioned

Four powerful local organizations, the Planning Association for the Richmond, People for a Golden Gate National Recreation Area (PFGGNA), Fort Miley Homeowners and Residents Association (FMHRA) and the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association (LPNA), formed a coalition to protect the quiet residential neighborhood and spectacular terrain in the area from the noise and traffic they believe the new research center will attract.

The center is a joint venture of the VA Medical Center and NCIRE, a nonprofit research foundation authorized by Congress to aid research at VA medical centers. The NCIRE administers millions of dollars in research grants.

Diana Nicoll, chief of staff at the VA Medical Center, says a research center would allow the VA to attract top-flight researchers and keep its competitive edge. Nicoll explained that because the VA lacks a research center, laboratories and research personnel are scattered throughout the complex.

The new facility would allow large groups of researchers to be housed together on one floor to share information, while the imaging or clinical component would be on a different floor in the center.

"We are number two in funding in the United States, but we have no research building," Nicoll said.

Neighbors Say VA's Record Not Credible

Although the new center would be built on the site of an employee parking lot at the rear of the hospital site and an existing parking structure would be enlarged to make up for lost parking spaces the local organizations joined together to fight the plan. They say the level of noise, traffic and parking problems a new research facility attracts will be detrimental to the neighborhood and nearby national park.

Freddy Hahne, a 16-year-resident on Seal Rock Drive and a force behind the Fort Miley Homeowners and Residents Association's opposition to the center, says it will increase traffic and noise in the neighborhood.

"The hospital is almost a 24-hour facility now, with an 11 a.m. to midnight shift. People park outside of our house now and delivery trucks start coming at 5 a.m.," Hahne said.

Hahne made it clear that the neighbors have nothing against the veterans that use the center, but says the VA's administrators have little credibility because of past experiences.

"The VA has a long history of aggressive attempts to expand its domain. It has done construction projects in the past that fall under the radar," Hahne said.

VA Currently Out of Favor With Neighbors for AIDs Website Project

Dan Burns has a bone to pick with the VA over a project it built on land that backs up against his backyard on Seal Rock Drive.

According to Burns, in May the hospital began a burst of activity that left his retaining wall bowed out by five feet and tons of loose dirt ready to wash down on his property when it constructed a roadway and set up a large temporary building to house an AIDs website.

"They lied to us and said the construction would take one week - it went on for months," he said.

"We weren't notified and we were awakened at 5 a.m. by shouts from workmen, noise from heavy equipment and car alarms going off in the parking lot because of the heavy equipment," Burns said.

Burns and others say they are determined to fight the VA's plan for a new research center.

"If they take any action toward building this center there will be a lawsuit blocking them," he said.