Attention: Monterey Park Residents
Attention: Monterey Park Residents
By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher
Monterey Park City Council will have an Appeal Hearing on the proposed OneLegacy project on May 16th during their Council Meeting held at City Hall at 7 PM.
Please check with our City Clerk’s Office at 626-307-1362 for more information.
The City Council is trying to hold Town Hall meetings if it is considered legal by our city attorney.
OneLegacy wants to have the city grant them a Conditional Use Permit for their Organ Donating hospital called a “Tissue Bank” by the Federal Government to be located at 1977 Saturn Street in our Office-Professional zone.
They originally wanted a heliport on this building too. Our city law doesn’t allow airports, heliport or helipads in any zone in our hometown.
Their Business Fact Sheet states:
| Background: | OneLegacy is dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area. As the largest non-profit, federally-designated organ procurement organization (OPO) in the United States, OneLegacy is dedicated to achieving the donation of life-saving and healing organs and tissues for those in need of transplants and to providing a sense of purpose and comfort to those families we serve. |
| Oversight: | Like all OPOs, OneLegacy is federally designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As a licensed tissue bank, OneLegacy Tissue Operations is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). OneLegacy is a member of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), a government-chartered nationwide network operating the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under federal contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). |
| Founded: | 1977 (Founded as the Southern California Organ Procurement Center [SCOPC], merged with Regional Organ Procurement Agency [ROPA] in 1999.) |
| Service Area: | Seven-county greater Los Angeles area, including Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties |
| Headquarters: | 221 South Figueroa Street, Suite 500 Los Angeles, CA 90012 T (213) 229-5600 Main F (213) 229-5601 |
Editor’s Notes:
A tissue bank is an establishment that collects and recovers human cadaver tissue for the purposes of medical research, education, and allograft transplantation. A tissue bank may also refer to a location where biomedical tissue is stored under cryogenic conditions, and is generally used in a more clinical sense.
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment.
Michael Huntley, Director of the Community and Economic Development Department, presented OneLegacy’s request and plans to convert 1977 Saturn Street into their office headquarters with a call center and add multiple operating rooms to remove organs from brain dead people who requested to donate their organs or their families who approved donating their loved ones’ organs to our Planning Commission for approval of their Conditional Use Permit during their February 27th meeting.
The first Public Hearing where only property owners living within 300 feet were notified of this project English.
The commissioners requested additional information on the subject during that meeting.
The Planning Commission had a second Public Hearing on March 13th as the residents demanded more information on the heliport and hospital use since they were not notified of this project in their own back yard.
This meeting was televised and sent out live to keep the residents updated on this strange request to change our Office-Professional zone to a “Hospital” zone for OneLegacy.
They took more public testimony and asked for the removal of the heliport information from the permit request since the city doesn’t allow their request for a heliport.
The Planning Commission held another meeting on March 27th and did not allow any more testimony on the OnLegacy project.
All five of the Commissioners (Larry Sullivan, Delario Robinson, Theresa Amador, Ricky Choi and Eric Brossy De Dios) voted to approve the Conditional Use Permit based on the information provided by Michael Huntley and OneLegacy.
On April 4th Randy Mikuriya filed an Appeal at the City Clerk’s office on this Conditional Use Permit. The cost to file this appeal was $1,576 paid for by some of the residents who reside very close to this property.
The residents have many unanswered questions on this project and requested the Council have Town Hall meetings on OneLegacy’s “Hospital” located in our city limits.
One of the major concerns is staff violating our zoning codes as presented in our Master Plan.
Monterey Park residents purchased their homes in residential zones that sometimes border our Commercial zones, our Medical District and our Office -Professional zone. Realtors should always inform their buyers about the city’s zones and Master Plan.
Now we have a city planner who wants to change our Office-Professional zone with a Conditional Use Permit for a “Hospital” zone for OneLegacy.
The donors would be declared brain dead but on life support until they were move into this center for their organs harvested. Will they be moved into this location by ambulances? Will their dead bodies then be removed from this location by hearses?
Another major concern is staff did not address the issue of heavy traffic flowing into Monterey Park from the 10, 710 and 60 Freeways on to our local streets 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
The residents need more information on this OneLegacy project that will forever change our hometown from one of the best places to live and raise your family.
This city belongs to us, the taxpaying residents, and not staff members or developers who want to change our city to suit their desires.
Please make your voices and your votes known to our City Council and our staff on this Conditional Use Permit issue and on any other issues that concerns you, your family, your neighborhoods and your hometown.
