Environmental assessment will postpone Barton Health approvals

A series of hearings on a proposal by Barton Health to move its main hospital from South Lake Tahoe to Stateline have been postponed in order to conduct an environmental analysis.

“Barton has been working with experts on the environmental analysis of the project this past year and now has direction from the TRPA on the type of report required to move forward with this project,” Barton Health Public Information Officer Mindi Befu said in a statement to The Record-Courier on Friday. “Once the EA is complete, meetings will be scheduled with the regulatory bodies in furtherance of project approval."

Creation of a healthcare overlay subdistrict in Stateline requested by Barton was off the agenda for last week’s Douglas County planning commission and introduction of the ordinance is nowhere on Douglas County commissioners’ Thursday docket.

 “We are following the requirements and timelines for project approval as required by the regulatory bodies,” Befu said.

According to a note included on the county’s web site, once the analysis is complete, Barton may bring forward their amendments at the appropriate time.

"There is a growing need for healthcare services in our community,” Befu said. “Due to aging infrastructure and the need for expanded services, Barton is proposing to relocate and expand the hospital at our Stateline campus.”

The hospital is proposed for the former site of the Lakeside Inn & Casino, which closed for the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020 and never reopened.

Grading underway at the site will end on Tuesday as the annual grading and digging season for permitted projects ends on Oct. 15. 

"All construction sites must be winterized through the wettest part of the year to protect Lake Tahoe’s famed water clarity," according to the TRPA. "Grading season in the Tahoe Basin runs from May 1 to Oct. 15 every year."

Barton purchased the site two years ago, as first reported by The Record-Courier. The former casino has been demolished and site work is underway on the site under a permit approved by the agency.

“Excavation was a necessary part of the demolition, grading, and site work which Barton applied for voluntarily,” according to the agency’s web site. “The grading does not pre-determine the final design of a project.”

The hospital is proposing a 55-bed facility and 200,000 square feet of acute care. The hospital will adjoin Laura Drive and the Oliver Park General Improvement District.

Barton is a nonprofit currently headquartered in South Lake Tahoe.

Barton Health CEO Dr. Clint Purvance said the move was required by the age of the main building on its current campus, which has reached the end of its useful life.

The issue is that the land available in Stateline will require the hospital to build up, hence the 85-foot peak. Purvance told planning commissioners on Aug. 13 that a proposed helicopter landing pad could be placed on either side of the structure.

The height of the structure and a variety of other issues have prompted neighbors to argue against approving the move.

A new hospital in Stateline would be located some distance from South Lake Tahoe’s center of population.