Neighbors To Proposed South Hills Hospital Ready For Fight

PLEASANT HILLS (KDKA) - Two years ago, Jamie Kahlil and family built their dream home in this Pleasant Hills neighborhood, but she says it's about to become a nightmare.

"UPMC wants to put a hospital in our backyard," said Kahil.

Her neighborhood rings an 80-acre wooded valley where the healthcare giant proposes to build a major new hospital complex.

Andy Sheehan: What will you see when you come out on your deck in the morning?

Jamie Kahlil: I'm going to see a 300,000 square foot building with a helipad.

UPMC's plan to build the hospital has already sparked the opposition of the rival Allegheny Health Network which says UPMC intent it to put their nearby  Jefferson hospital out of business.

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"UPMC's plans to build a hospital in Pleasant Hills, just 3,000 feet away from Jefferson Hospital, is a purely strategic business decision that has absolutely nothing to do with community need and everything to do with UPMC's ongoing efforts to monopolize healthcare in western PA."

Not so, says UPMC spokesperson Paul Wood.

"We don't build hospital where our competition is, we build them where are patients are," said Wood.

While neighborhoods in the immediate area might oppose the plan, Wood says folks in the surrounding communities favor it. UPMC says 500 patients along the Route 51 corridor drive passed Jefferson every day to go to UPMC hospitals in Oakland.

"So the question becomes 'why should they be prevented from going to facilities they would like to go to' and 'why should they have to drive cross the Mon River to see to the UPMC doctors and go to the UPMC facility they would like to see'."

But the land is zoned residential and UPMC will need some kind of exception from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to move forward.  Property owners in the immediate area will argue at meeting last week that the new hospital would destroy their peaceful existence.

"Won't be able to sleep very well with all the lights coming in, the landing lights  from the helicopter, car lights, sirens, helicopters, it's going to be complete turmoil," said Cody Soska.