In February 2006, after extensive negotiations primarily involving the cost of road improvements, the Escondido City Council approved a zoning change allowing Palomar Pomerado to build a 453 facility in the west side Escondido Research and Technology Center, which the city had planned as a high-tech business hub. The 453-bed hospital would replace Palomar Medical Center as North County's only trauma center. Palomar Pomerado, which built the downtown medical center's first tower 50 years ago, had repeatedly said the business park was the only suitable site in Escondido for the new trauma center. If the council kept it from building there, district officials had said, they would probably have to build the hospital outside the city. See story from North County Times

The decision was made in spite of some environmental and congestion concerns associated with the project. The facility will be near a 546-megawatt power plant under development in the park by Sempra Energy. But a study by Palomar Pomerado concluded that exposure to potentially dangerous air contaminants at the facility would remain well below state thresholds. The new hospital would create more traffic than the offices originally planned for the area. Once completed, the hospital would generate 17,060 car trips each day, 6,950 more than anticipated in the city's original environmental studies for that 52-acre section of the park. See story from North County Times