The Los Angeles City Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously voted in favor of a conditional use permit to build a seven-story, 200,000 square-foot addition to USC’s Health Sciences Campus in Boyle Heights.
Approval of the conditional use permit allows for the development of the USC Discovery and Translation Hub, which is proposed to be built along 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 includes several research labs to accommodate more than 84 researchers.
Dozens of residents and community leaders spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. Local activist groups like Eastside LEADS and Innercity Struggle have opposed the project, while other nonprofits like Mothers of East LA, The Wall/Las Memorias Project and Northeast Trees are supporting it. Several workers unions have also backed it.
Those who opposed the project said they were afraid of housing displacement by potentially having graduate students and researchers moving into the predominantly Latino neighborhoods nearby. Residents from Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno expressed concern with the massive development after seeing displacement with the growing footprint of USC.
“USC says that there is no direct displacement. Say that to a community member who’s currently trying to find housing in this community, and because nothing is affordable, they have to move to other communities. Say that to the families that are currently being displaced and living on the streets,” said Daniel Jimenez, an Eastside community organizer, during the public meeting.
Blanca Espinoza, who has lived in Boyle Heights for 25 years, felt that USC could have done more to inform residents of its plans.
While many residents voiced their concerns, others did speak in favor of the project.
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.”
Michael Sinclair, an educator at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, said during the meeting that many Bravo graduates have “found transformational career success in the medical healthcare fields in no small part due to programs Bravo and USC have developed and refined over these many years.”
After public comment, Monique Lawshe, president of the planning commission, stressed the project was not housing and would not displace people. She said the medical advances of a center like the USC Discovery and Translation Hub would benefit surrounding communities.
“I have to balance what I’ll refer to as the greater good. And in my opinion, the research and the work that will be done in health when this facility is completed, weighs heavy on me. There’s a lot of need. There are health disparities in communities of people of color. I understand that,” Lawshe said before voting to approve the project.
No further approvals are necessary for this project, according to a statement from the city’s media relations team sent to Boyle Heights Beat on Thursday.
If the project were to be appealed, however, it would head to the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the Los Angeles City Council for their final vote on the matter, according to the statement.
