Planned Parenthood, which dropped its plan to open a clinic in Redwood City last year because it couldn’t cobble enough parking spaces, has found an alternate location — the former Chevy’s Fresh Mex restaurant in unincorporated North Fair Oaks.
Lupe Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, said the women’s health organization is “absolutely confident” the new site at 2907 El Camino Real has enough parking spots.
“All of the considerations that were questions last time have been vetted and everything is going well,” Rodriguez said Wednesday.
Last September, Planned Parenthood withdrew its bid to move into an office building about a block away at 2890 El Camino Real. During the eight months it tried to open there, the health group failed to come up with nine off-site parking spots Redwood City said were needed in addition to the on-site spaces. Abortion foes had threatened to picket any business that provided the extra spaces to the clinic.
Ross Foti, a local anti-abortion crusader who sets up graphic posters of aborted fetuses outside of abortion clinics, said Wednesday he was disappointed that Planned Parenthood had not gotten the message after last year’s thwarted attempt.
“I thought it was all over with,” Foti said. “We’ll just mobilize more pro-lifers to go out there. It’s an ongoing fight. We’ll beat ’em, but it takes time.”
Planned Parenthood has not yet determined whether it will offer abortion services at the North Fair Oaks location, Rodriguez said. The clinic will offer reproductive and preventative health care services, including cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, contraceptives, and HIV tests. Primary care services such as pediatrics may also be offered, she said.
While Planned Parenthood remodels the inside of the 8,782-square-foot leased restaurant site with a goal of reopening it as a clinic sometime next year, it will park a medical van there on Tuesdays to provide limited women’s health services.
Foti set up a one-man vigil outside of the empty restaurant building Tuesday and got into an argument with a man and his wife who live nearby after they demanded he take down his signs. At one point the woman threw the signs on the ground and pushed him, Foti said, adding that he called police but didn’t press charges.
San Mateo County Senior Planner Dave Holbrook said the former restaurant site is zoned for commercial use, which allows medical clinics. Parking would be a consideration before the county issues any permit, Holbrook said, adding that he couldn’t determine whether the 73 parking spaces there now would be enough because the county has not yet received Planned Parenthood’s plans on how the building would be used. The planning and building department wouldn’t have any say about the type of medical clinic that moves in, he noted.
“We wouldn’t have the legal authority. There may be moral opinions about what happens at that medical clinic, but it’s a medical clinic,” Holbrook said. “From our point of view, we’re not able to make that call, nor should we.”
Email Bonnie Eslinger at beslinger@dailynewsgroup.com; follow her at twitter.com/bonnieeslinger.
