The City Planning Commission in West Covina, Calif., approved plans and certified an environmental study for a proposed 490,000-square-foot expansion and modernization at Queen of the Valley hospital in West Covina. As reported in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the long-term expansion would increase the hospital’s size by almost 50%. Plans will go before the City Council at a future meeting for final approval.

Reporter Christopher Yee writes: “The hospital currently sits at one million square feet on 28.8 acres—including 2.8 acres of what used to be Sunset Field—and both new and renovated buildings would bring the campus’ total size to 1.58 million square feet.”

The Tribune reports that the environmental study found, “increased traffic from the larger patient load the expanded hospital would generate and increased greenhouse gasses produced as a result of them driving to the hospital.”