Eastside residents and local organizers opposed to a new development at the USC Health Sciences campus are continuing their fight after the seven-story, 200,000-square-foot research facility won approval by the L.A. City Planning Commission in May.
Several Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights residents met at a town hall last weekend to receive updates on the planned expansion and discuss community demands that aim to hold USC accountable to the surrounding neighborhoods that the project impacts. Some of those include a more robust local hire and a commitment to prevent the displacement of residents and local businesses.
Organizers with anti-gentrification group Eastside LEADS, who hosted the event, asked opponents to sign a petition declaring their opposition to the USC Discovery Translational Hub development without meaningful and impactful community benefits.
“I ask the Eastside community to join us and follow what’s happening… There are a lot of groups on the Eastside who are working together to make sure that any development benefits existing residents, not pushes them out,” said Pamela Agustin-Anguiano, director of Eastside LEADS.
In May, the Planning Commission unanimously voted in favor of a conditional use permit to build the research hub near the western side of the existing Keck Hospital at 1500 San Pablo Street. At 143 feet high, the proposed facility contains two subterranean levels, ornamental landscaping, and several research labs to accommodate more than 84 researchers.
A month later, local organizers including labor union SEIU 721, USC Forward and Eastside LEADS, filed to appeal the vote. The appeal will go before the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee on Sept. 17 and the full City Council for their final vote on Sept. 20.
At a May 23 Los Angeles City Planning Commission meeting, Thomas Buchanan, the vice dean for research at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, said the facility and its programs would benefit the people living around it.
“There are thousands of people who’ve come to work on our health sciences campus every day with one goal in mind, and that is to improve people’s lives to better health,” Buchanan said. “[The programs] will bring cutting edge technologies like regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and precision health to address the debilitating diseases that affect patients and communities.”
However, Agustin-Anguiano, said that residents are already feeling the pressure of the expanding campus through diminishing parking and the displacement of local businesses. She also pointed to USC’s record of enrollment in graduate programs, meaning students may seek local housing around the community, displacing longtime residents.
“We have a right to demand our own amenities, services, needs and priorities to be met. Whether that’s public development or private development, it’s our neighborhoods, and we need to fight for the goods that we want to see in our neighborhoods,” Agustin-Anguiano said.
Eastside LEADS said the group has sent multiple requests over five years to meet with USC President Carol Folt to discuss concerns and negotiate for better community protections and benefits, but that University officials have not honored the request to meet, according to Agustin-Anguiano.
However, USC refuted the claim, saying Eastside LEADS has not been responsive to their requests to meet. In a university statement provided to Boyle Heights Beat, the community relations team confirmed there have been multiple attempts to meet with the Eastside group in the past year, only hearing back from Agustin-Anuiano this month.
“The Discovery and Translational Hub is one of the most significant health equity projects in decades. The Hub’s mission is to bring the most innovative treatments for disease and illness directly to the communities we serve… Despite repeatedly sharing these facts and many attempts for meaningful dialogue, it’s disappointing that Eastside LEADS continues to mischaracterize the Hub and seeks to stop the delivery of world-class healthcare that every community deserves. We are always open to resetting the conversation,” the statement read.
This story was updated on Friday, Aug. 23, to reflect a statement from USC.