BARBARA HENRY - bhenry@nctimes.com

ENCINITAS -- City Council members will consider Wednesday whether to back an appeal that a group of neighbors has filed against a Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas expansion proposal.

The group, known as the Neighbors of Scripps Encinitas, is asking the council to overturn a recent, unanimous city Planning Commission decision that allows the project to proceed.

"We've presented a two-pronged approach to them," Devonshire Drive resident Diane Bond said Friday, as she discussed the appeal she filed on behalf of the neighbors group.

"The first is to point out the deficiencies in the (environmental impact report) and ask them to send it back," Bond said.

The second tactic will be to present the council with a list of items that neighboring homeowners want Scripps to tackle before it begins any other construction work, Bond said.

"What this comes down to is timing," she said, adding that residents want a privacy wall extended and that they want the installation of traffic calming measures on Devonshire Drive.

The hospital, part of the Scripps Health system of nonprofit health care providers, is proposing to add 529,101 square feet to what is now a 333,380-square-foot complex on Santa Fe Drive just west of Interstate 5.

New buildings would include a three-story parking structure, an emergency department and a three-story medical office building.

Hospital officials have said that it could at least 15 years to complete all the work.

The hospital forecasts that 1,000 more vehicles a day may be using the residential Devonshire Drive as a secondary access point to the hospital complex if the entire project moves forward as planned.

Neighboring homeowners are unhappy about that.

They would like limit access on Devonshire to hospital employees and emergency vehicles only, Bond said.

Scripps Chief Operating Officer Tim Collins said the hospital has no problem with expanding the wall or improving Devonshire Drive.

"To be honest with you, these are all things that we agreed to do," he said Friday.

One thing that the hospital has not agreed to do is to rework its site plan to change how traffic will flow on and off the site.

Hospital officials have argued that changing the access points isn't workable for them.

Wednesday's meeting is at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.

The Planning Commission hearing attracted about 200 people, and a similar spillover crowd is expected at Wednesday's council meeting.

The hospital item is the last one on the council's agenda.

However, the evening's other topics are on the consent calendar -- a section of the agenda where items can be approved quickly without council comment or staff presentations.

Agenda information, the residents' appeal request and other hospital-related documents can be found athttp://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/Government/PublicD/AgendasAM/CityCouncil/City+Coun cil+Agendas.htm