Health district's spending on proposed facility

According to Beach Cities Health District's 2019-20 budget, it has authorized (and I assume spent) over $5 million so far on its 420 unit, 600,000 square-foot, planned assisted living overdevelopment on the former South Bay Hospital site.

We all need to be reminded that assisted living and skilled nursing facilities have accounted for about half of the COVID-19 deaths in California so far. BCHD’s facility is expected to have about 550 beds, making it a very large facility with the potential for a massive outbreak from future flu, virus, epidemic or pandemic events.

A recent Public Records Act response from BCHD indicates that they have yet to even consider the impacts of COVID-19 on their project. For $5 million, you’d think something as fatal as COVID-19 in the age 65+ group that BCHD is targeting would be worth at least a study.

Also, 80% of the tenants of the proposed project will be from outside the beach cities. We don’t need BCHD in the risky, commercial real estate business gambling with the lives of seniors. We can't have the first $5 million back that they've wasted, but we can stop wasting more money. It's time to shut down the big, bad project.

—Mark Nelson, Redondo Beach