Martha Elson

@MarthaElson_cj

The next quarterly Veterans Town Hall meeting, which is open to the public, is June 28.

A decade after the Department of Veterans Affairs announced plans to replace the early 1950s-era VA hospital on Zorn Avenue, no construction has started and the controversial $12.9 million Brownsboro Road site the department bought in 2012 hasn't received final clearance.

There's even some talk on a national level of re-evaluating the scope, cost and nature of the project. Private sector contracts to provide health care are not out of the question either.

While a new Louisville VA hospital was once expected to be completed by late this year, the best-case scenario now is 2022, subject to budget approval and an ongoing Environmental Impact Statement, which follows two less-extensive assessments.

The situation has riled Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who called the VA's management of the replacement project a "disgrace" in a recent email. "The men and women who served our country so bravely deserve to receive quality health care in a new, modern facility and they have been waiting since 2006," he said.

The delay has created questions and confusion about whether the nearly $1 billion complex will be built. Another complication is that the second top site, located along Factory Lane, is no longer on the market.

TIMELINE | A look at Louisville VA Medical Center project over the years

The VA is proceeding with the Louisville project but is "evaluating options and workload to assure the project scope remains valid" and the "selected way forward offers the most appropriate and cost-effective solution to providing healthcare to Veterans," according to a statement sent Thursday by Henry L. Huntley, a department spokesman in Washington. The VA is completing an impact statement and anticipates issuing a draft report for public comment, "before finalizing the process" in late summer, according to the statement.

"The results will influence the final scope of the effort," and because it's classed as a Super Construction Project, the VA also is working to finalize a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete the design and construction, the statement says.

Local VA officials also have been waiting for more definite information. It's "likely" that a new center will be built at the Brownsboro site, but a decision won't be made until the impact statement is completed, said Martin Traxler, the Louisville VA center's director, on Wednesday.

"They have to go through each step," he said. "We'll know when the report is final."

Private sector opporunities

The uncertainty about plans for the new medical center also has been fueled by comments about re-evaluating the project in a Dec. 30 letter to U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, from Robert Nabors III, chief of staff to U.S. VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald.

"VA will consider the existing Zorn site and the Brownsboro land, as well as private sector opportunities to contract service in the area to determine the most cost-effective method to deliver veteran health care in the Louisville area," Nabors' letter says. "Should this assessment determine that there is a lower cost opportunity for delivery of health care, the project scope will be re-evaluated accordingly to make the best decision for veteran care, as well as best use of taxpayers' dollars."

The VA already has been shifting in the direction of expanded care through private providers as a result of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act or Choice Act, signed into law in 2014.

But the VA has already bought a site, which has generated a lot of criticism. The Brownsboro land purchase from developer Jonathan Blue – who had planned a mixed-use development there on former farmland – stirred up controversy after it was discovered that the assessed value of the property had risen from $9.8 million 14 months earlier, after a second assessment was done. In September, a federal investigation showed that the VA might have overpaid more than $3 million for the site and violated its own policies about appraising and acquiring the property.

And now the VA isn't even sure if it's suitable.

Miller had sent a Nov. 17 letter to McDonald asking why the VA took so long to decide to do an Environmental Impact Statement at the Brownsboro site, saying major challenges include traffic and the 34-acre size, which is smaller than the Zorn location. He also said the VA must use up-to-date traffic data and questioned whether the VA seriously considered a Fegenbush Lane site near Hurstbourne Lane and downtown property near the University of Louisville Hospital that also were among the top five choices.

Miller also charges that the VA had resisted doing the full impact statement for years, with no justification, and urged officials now to "focus on the significant challenges posed by the Brownsboro Road site and not expend additional time on matters that have already been found to be insignificant. ... VA must be honest about the site's challenges, not gloss over them, and be responsible with mitigation."

The veterans' committee's "investigation" of the Louisville plans continues as it awaits completion of the impact statement, a committee staffer said recently by email.

A draft impact statement was supposed to have been available in February and public meetings held in March, according to a VA Fact Sheet, issued last fall, which estimated that construction could begin in 2017.

Millions spent on upgrades

Millions of dollars continue to be spent to upgrade and expand the present hospital – currently for improvements to the air quality system – and some veterans have said they would prefer to have it upgraded further and new facilities built on site. Parking is considered to be one of the biggest drawbacks there because of the distance and sloping terrain veterans must negotiate to get to the entrances.

READ MORE: VA orders full impact report at medical sites

Dr. Marylee Rothschild, chief of staff of the current medical center, describes it as a "well-maintained older facility" but would not comment further about the plans for a new hospital.

Vietnam veteran Bill Campbell, of Clifton, is more than a little apprehensive about the Brownsboro site at the Watterson Expressway interchange, given the congested traffic situation there now.

"It's going to be a madhouse," the 62-year-old ex-sailor said at the current Robley Rex VA Medical Center Wednesday morning, when hundreds of motorcyclists taking part in the annual '"Run for the Wall' ride to the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., stopped by for a visit. "You won't ever be able to get in there."

For the Environmental Impact Statement, the VA is still considering continuing services at the Zorn site. Even if a new medical center is constructed, VA officials have said the old site still could be used, perhaps as an outpatient facility.

"We have to stay functional," said Laura Schafsnitz, a local VA spokeswoman based at the medical center. Health care standards are higher now, and "we've reached the capacity of how much we can improve on this building, technologically and space-wise."

Navy veteran Craig Bush, 54, of Oldham County, a Run for the Wall participant, agreed Wednesday, saying, "We do need a new VA." While Bush said he has received good care at the Louisville hospital and was able to "get in and out" quickly for recent laser eye surgery, he said the equipment is outdated and a new facility could provide more efficient parking.

READ MORE: VA opens probes at Cincinnati hospital

"That's a problem every day," he said.

He would like to see a new medical center at the Factory Lane site in far eastern Louisville, near the Gene Snyder Freeway, which is not as congested, he said. But that site is now slated for two different private development projects.

Downtown site near U of L Hospital

Some liked a downtown site. It was heavily promoted in 2009 by then-Mayor Jerry Abramson and U of L President James Ramsey in a lengthy proposal submitted to the VA that offered tax increment financing to defray the VA's land costs and "nearly $22 million in capital infrastructure avoidance," Miller's letter said.

It involved two possible 25-acre tracts along East Broadway and allowed flexibility to carve out a different site.

City officials have not had any recent discussions about the medical center, but Mayor Greg Fischer “is most interested in seeing it built,” said Chris Poynter, Fischer’s spokesman, on Friday.

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, also has been a strong proponent of a new hospital and urged the VA in a letter last year to address concerns about the location and traffic and the need for an EIS discussed in a letter sent then to the VA by Metro Council member Angela Leet, who represents the area that includes Brownsboro Road site. Yarmuth has been informed of the VA's latest update statement about the plans and "looks forward to the completion of the EIS," said Christopher Schuler, Yarmuth's communications director, in an email.

Retired Brig. Gen. Rob Givens, an Air Force veteran who lives in Prospect, said Thursday, he would favor a site in western Louisville, saying it would be a "huge economic benefit" to the community. He suggested the area just west of Ninth Street where the Beecher Terrace public housing development would be demolished if the city receives federal funding for a comprehensive renewal project in the area – a site also favored by Leet.

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If the EIS had been done years ago, "some of these issues could have been avoided," Leet said, adding that she has been trying to get answers about what's happening with the project. But "the VA here continues to stonewall and be non-communicative. I can't get answers."

Grow Smart Louisville

Eric Gunderson of St. Matthews, president of an activist group called Grow Smart Louisville that opposes the Brownsboro site, said he hopes the VA would again consider the downtown site next to U of L Hospital, if it can't build at the existing Zorn site. The downtown site could bring in extra research dollars because of its proximity to the hospital and conveniently offer expanded care options for vets, said Gunderson, a former Young Professionals of Louisville president.

"Every day that goes by, we hear more and more stories about improper management coming out of the VA," Gunderson said. "This is another example of that."

He called the Brownsboro site a "poor purchase choice" and said a survey the VA conducted relied too heavily on views of older veterans.

VA officials have said the Brownsboro site was appealing because it was cleared and was the closest of the finalists to the current site and the overall downtown medical complex. They also said the nearby Holiday Manor shopping center, which has a Kroger store, and other businesses and restaurants in the area would provide amenities for patients and visitors.

But the site is directly adjacent to the upscale small city of Crossgate, and some residents think it's too small and that traffic is too congested, despite roadway improvements that already have been made and long-range plans to improve the interchange.

Some also question whether the site is suitable from a geological standpoint – citing the need to build up the site 10 or 12 feet with extra soil above two layers of underground limestone, as outlined in a previous environmental assessment.

Crossgate resident Peggy English said she talked to surveyors at the site a few months ago who said they were looking for water and had put stakes in several different locations.

"The rumor mill has been going crazy for the past month," said resident Irene Yeager, who with her husband, Mike, has compiled extensive files about the project plans. "People say they're not going to build the hospital, that the land doesn't perk. The traffic alone should stop this project completely."

Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061 and melson@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MarthaElson_cj. USA Today reporter Mary Troyan also contributed to this story.

Have questions?

Martin Traxler, the Louisville VA center's director, will be available at the next quarterly Veterans Town Hall meeting – which is open to the pubic – from 5 to 7 p.m. June 28. The meeting is in a conference room at the center, 800 Zorn Ave.