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Medical staff at Berkeley’s only hospital with an emergency room got the go-ahead from city leaders Tuesday to upgrade the interior of its aging emergency department. 

The renovation was 10 years in the planning at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center when it was held up last spring by two appeals filed by neighbors in the south Berkeley neighborhood. Noise and the removal of trees were the residents’ chief concerns. 

But just hours before City Council was expected to rule on the appeals, both were dropped, according to City Manager Weldon Rucker. The appellants had called him late Tuesday afternoon. 

The appellants could not immediately be reached for comment, but neighbors indicated that an agreement had been struck with hospital officials that lead to the dismissal of the appeals. 

“The neighborhood got a lot of assurances,” said Mary Barclay, president of south Berkeley’s Bateman Neighborhood Association. “Over the past four weeks, everyone has worked hard to make sure the issues were going to be resolved.” 

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board approved a use permit for hospital work in April, but the two appeals had delayed the project. 

While the neighborhood has largely supported the hospital’s renovation project, deliberations about the way it should be done are what racked the planning process for the past decade. Concerns ranged from traffic and parking to the appearance of the new department. 

With the appeals dropped, hospital officials can move forward with expansion of the emergency department and with relocation of the radiology department. 

The hospital’s emergency department sees more than 45,000 patients each year, according to Alta Bates staff. The emergency department was built in the 1960s to accommodate only 12,000 patients, hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp said. 

Dismissal of the appeals allows certification of the project’s environmental impact report to stand and it moves forward operational guidelines that the hospital must act under once the new facilities are completed.