JEFFERSON, La. — Signs are popping up across Old Jefferson, urging parish leaders to vote no to a series of proposed zoning changes.
Those changes would allow Ochsner Health to demolish homes and tear down trees next to its main medical center on Jefferson Highway to make room for the construction of a new, 343,000 square-foot, five-story, Ochsner Children’s Hospital.
Those of us who live here feel that’s a destruction of the quality and ambiance of our neighborhood,” Jefferson neighbor Richard Spector said. “Generally speaking, we’re all against it.”
Ochsner Children’s Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Butch Adolph said the hospital location was chosen based on the maximum clinical benefit for patients.
“There was really no other location that allowed the integration of some of our adult and pediatric specialists to provide the seamless care we want to provide for pediatric patients,” Adolph said. “The proximity to a lot of our existing services with the adults and some of the services we share is part of the reason we picked this location.”
Ochsner has agreed to build a pocket park at the corner of Deckbar Avenue and River Road and provide a walkable, green corridor to the Mississippi River levee.
“We’re working with our community and our neighbors to make sure we are minimizing any negative impacts to the neighborhood that may come from this project,” Ochsner Health VP Emily Arata said.
There is a petition circulating calling for Ochsner to reconsider its expansion plans to save decades old live oaks now threatened by the project.
“Part of the construction of the Children's Hospital will end up taking down a bunch of very old oaks,” Spector said. “It’s hard to replace the oaks with something else that will have the same beauty and history associated with it.
According to Ochsner, a beloved, 200-plus-year-old oak tree on Betz Avenue will be protected.
“That particular tree is not impacted by this project,” Arata said. “It will not be impacted by the new home for Ochsner Children’s Hospital or the associated parking garage.”
JP Councilman Deano Bonano is working with Ochsner to get more concessions for the surrounding community. But he says much of the land is already zoned as a hospital district.
“If we told them no today and they wanted to build the Children’s Hospital, they already have the entire trip of Deckbar zoned as H2, they could simply put it right there,” Bonano said.
Still, many neighbors vow to fight the Ochsner expansion.
“We want the project stopped,” Spector said. “We don’t feel this is a neighborhood to put another hospital footprint because of the heavy traffic it’s going to attract.”
Ochsner was hoping to break ground on the project by the middle of this year, then open the doors to the new children’s hospital in late 2027.
Councilman Bonano said groundbreaking of the Ochsner Children Hospital project will likely be delayed at least a year.
The JP Council is expected to vote on the zoning changes next month.
According to an Ochsner spokesperson, “We anticipated going through the Parish review and approval process for most of this year which still has us on schedule for a 2027 opening.”