44,000-SF Medical Office Building Proposed

SAN DIEGO-County planners will consider a plan to build a Kaiser Permanente medical office building in Rancho San Diego.

The county Department of Planning and Land Use are recommending changes to the two-story medical offices that would house 16 primary-care physicians and eight pediatric specialists. It would also include lab, pharmacy and radiology facilities.

The Valle de Oro Community Planning Group is worried that red tape could again delay the project. It was revived earlier this year and the planning group unanimously approved it in August.

Most of the problems have been ironed out, but traffic remains a concern. The 44,000-sf building would be next to Avocado Elementary School on the southeast corner of Fury Lane and Avocado Boulevard. Some are concerned that a medical clinic would make the traffic situation unmanageable during the afternoon.

However, construction could begin within 30 days, since the project does not have to go before the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors for approval.

Kaiser, which has 18 medical office buildings in the county, hopes to open in East County by 2003 after reorganizing its La Mesa offices and opening the new Rancho San Diego facility.