St. Paul's Hospital plan prompts traffic concerns

Some East Vancouver residents are concerned about the impact the plans to move and rebuild St. Paul's Hospital will have on traffic in the area.

Providence Health Care announced last month thatSt. Paul's Hospitalwill close its West End locationand move to a new locationin East Vancouver, near Main Street and TerminalAvenue.

"It means we will see a lot more ambulance traffic, a lot more police traffic that goes with that sometimes, a lot more citizen traffic," saidone residentJosh Young at a community meeting on Wednesday evening.

However, the hospital redevelopment chief project officerNeilMacConnellsaidthatthe new locationwill mean better access for city residents.

"That's a very central location from a transportation perspective. Even people coming from outside the city can get to that location," he said.

He added that new facility will be built with the potential to expand.

"It's a site that's vacant at this time, so lots of capacity and more capacity to build our hospital."

Providence Health Care still has to produce a business caseand concept drawings for the government to approve.

ElanaZysblatof theStrathconaResidents' Association says her groupwill be closely watching the development plans.

"I think there's a great opportunity we might be lucky to have a great site like this going up near us, but we also have to watch the process very, very carefully to make sure we're avoiding any negative impacts," she said.