Escondido Goes All In

The City of Escondido has offered the entire 52 acres at the Escondido Research and Technology Center (ERTC) to the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) district so that PPH can build its cherished resort-style hospital there. The offer has two minor conditions.

1) PPH would need to sign agreements to help cover the costs of road and other infrastructure improvements around the ERTC.

2) PPH would need to sign a development agreement with a commitment to follow through with its renovation plan for the Palomar Medical Center (PMC) downtown.

Both of these restrictions appear reasonable. PPH has said that the new facility at the ERTC will provide 4000 jobs. By taking the main 52 acre pad of the ERTC, PPH will be the ERTC's main tenant and traffic generator, and must assume some of the infrastructure responsibilities that would have been placed on a private businesses that the city had hoped to site there. One core infrastructure responsibility is the long planned extension of Citracado Parkway to Valley Parkway.

The Citracado extension will save lives because emergency vehicles will be able to get to the hospital faster and avoid the railroad tracks and Nordahl freeway interchange. PPH has repeatedly claimed to place saving lives above everything else.

And after the elaborate PPH presentation last month, committing to the promised improvements for the downtown PMC should be a "no brainer".

See details in the North County Times at:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08/24/
news/inland/21_02_208_23_05.txt
and in the Union Tribune at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/
20050823-9999-1m23ehosp.html