Preservationists sue over New Orleans hospital plan

• By ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: May 2, 2009 - Page: 11A

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NEW ORLEANS — A congressionally chartered preservationist organization filed suit Friday in Washington, D.C., accusing federal agencies of failing to consider the “adverse effects” of building a new LSU teaching hospital and a VA hospital in New Orleans.

Filed in a District of Columbia federal court, the suit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States names both the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Federal Emergency Management Agency and their respective administrators as defendants.

The suit accuses both FEMA and VA of violating federally mandated rules for considering the impact of building the proposed LSU Academic Medical Center and a neighboring VA Medical Center.

The complaint seeks an order halting “any funds” and “all construction-related activities on the proposed adjacent” hospital sites near downtown New Orleans.

The suit comes at a time when Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration is seeking $493 million in FEMA disaster reimbursements to help fund $1.2 billion for the state’s share of a proposed LSU/VA medical complex.

Both the state and the city have said the construction of the two new hospitals would replace both storm-damaged Charity Hospital and the VA Medical Center in downtown, and help revive the city’s economy, damaged when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

The National Trust suit alleges the 67-acre site chosen for LSU/VA project would require bulldozing 25 square blocks, containing 165 historic properties in the Mid-City Historic District, including homes renovated by their owners after Katrina.

Overall, the suit alleges, the project would require the demolition of approximately 265 residential housing units and the displacement of 600 people, 85 percent of whom are minorities and 40 percent who are living below the federal poverty line.

The suit requests that a court stop any “site selection, property acquisition, site preparation, demolition and construction, until the VA and FEMA have fully complied with their legal duties” to consider the environmental, historical and cultural impact of the hospital project.

“Bulldozing a historic neighborhood in New Orleans in order to build these two medical centers is wrong, both legally and morally,” Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, a 235,000-member organization chartered by Congress in 1949. “There are other sites that would bring state-of-the-art medical care to the community faster and for less money, without destroying Mid-City … We hope this lawsuit will lead VA and FEMA to go back and revisit the less destructive options.”

Preservationists, neighborhood groups and others have supported restoring state-owned Charity Hospital and building a new VA hospital on the site of flood-damaged Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid-City.