Community Corner

Planning Board Green Lights Contested Suburban Hospital Expansion

The $230 million hospital expansion project would add a 235,000 square foot addition on to the hospital along with a nearly 1200-space parking garage with four above-ground stories.

The Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday gave the green light to Suburban Hospital's controversial expansion plans, which first came before the board in 2008 and have been the subject of revisions, debate and legal wrangling for more than five years.

The expansion plans have been hotly contested by the Huntington Terrace Citizens Association, a group that represents the facility’s neighbors. After extended testimony from both sides, the Montgomery County Board of Appeals in 2010 ruled that the hospital could move forward with the project, a divergence from the recommendation of Francoise Carrier, who now chairs the Montgomery County Planning Board and was the hearing examiner who reviewed the case. 

The citizens group has objected to the configuration of the designs and the hospital’s plans to remove 10 homes it owns in the neighborhood for the expansion, which neighbors have said will affect the area’s residential character. The hospital originally proposed to remove 23 homes, but the Board of Appeals ruled that 13 must remain.

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The $230 million hospital expansion project would add a 235,000 square foot addition onto the hospital along with a nearly 1200-space parking garage with four above-ground stories.

The project would demolish the 10 homes, an existing parking structure and an office building and add 66 patient beds and physician office space, providing for about 260 more full-time employees.

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The hospital, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Lincoln Street, is proposing to build the addition over the Lincoln Street right-of-way and the parking garage near the intersection of Southwick Street and Old Georgetown Road. The Montgomery County Council unanimously approved the abandonment of a portion of Lincoln Street in Bethesda in 2011, a move Suburban Hospital officials have said is necessary for the hospital’s expansion. 

Also in 2011, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge denied Huntington Terrace’s appeal of the ruling that the expansion may move forward, and the citizens group appealed the decision again to a higher court.

Supporters of the hospital, the county's only trauma center, say the aging facility is in desperate need of modernization. "We have a plan that works, it’s compatible, it enhances that campus 100 fold from what is there," said Barbara Sears, an attorney for Suburban Hospital. "It also meets basic health care needs…this is not a desire, it’s a necessity given the health care requirements of today's world."

Architect Adrian Hagerty said the plan "took cues" from the neighborhood to make the design compatible with surrounding homes, creating a campus-like setting rather than an "institutional" look."

"We've developed a plan here that's truly compatible with the neighborhood...it creates an environment that's sustainable for the future so the hospital and the community can live in peace and harmony for many years to come," Hagerty said.

Norman Knopf, an attorney for the Huntington Terrace Citizens Association, said the community does not oppose the hospital's needs to expand, but rather takes issue with certain elements of the plans including noise mitigation, the size and location of the garage and a portion of the addition, and the design of the hospital's entrance way.

"We are not opposed to an expansion," Knopf said. "There’s a lot of evidence showing there were adverse effects flowing from the particular locations and design."

The plans may be subject to further review depending on a pending court decision.


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