Hospital Land Use Panel Seeks Study of Neighborhood Near WAH

As part of an effort to have more interaction with the Takoma Park City Council, the Washington Adventist Hospital Land Use Committee (WAHLUC) at its meeting July 19, approved a resolution urging the council to revive funding for a neighborhood study around the existing hospital campus.

The WAHLUC resolution reads: “To make a recommendation to the council to issue a letter to the Maryland National Capital Parks & Planning Commission to revive the neighborhood study line item in the next fiscal year [FY 2013] budget.”

WAHLUC serves in an advisory role to the council on matters related to the future use of the property currently occupied by Washington Adventist Hospital (WAH) if the hospital relocates to the White Oak location for which it has applied for a “Certificate of Need” (CON) from the Maryland Health Care Commission.

“If parks and planning is able to do a neighborhood plan, and they put in for the budget and it gets approved that will force the issue in terms of coordinating all these committees,” said Mary Beth O’Quinn, who is advising the committee. 

The committees will be needed to provide input into the plan, Ilona Blanchard, a city staffer told the WAHLUC. Blanchard also said that such a neighborhood study was cut from the current budget.

The WAHLUC resolution follows a city council meeting at which members expressed concern over the way city committees operate in Takoma Park. The council said it will continue its discussion and possibly formulate resolutions involving committees.

WAHLUC also heard that a decision on WAH’s CON application is likely to be this summer. If the CON application is approved, the hospital “will put all of their effort in getting the project done. It’s going to be their obsession,” said Mary Beth O’Quinn, who is advising the committee.

If the CON is approved, the hospital would turn its attention to obtaining building permits from Montgomery County, O’Quinn said. In building a hospital, as soon as the clock starts ticking on the construction bids and material delivery; “time is money on a project like that. I would imagine their bid set is almost ready to go,” she said. However, the “certificate of needs people” could “trim the hospital’s sails,” she added. If there are significant trims, the hospital will have to redesign the facility. “I suspect they are already working on those ‘what ifs’, and I would guess that once they get their approval they would probably be two-to-three months away from getting building permits,” O’Quinn said.

However, if the CON is approved and the hospital’s attention is focused on matters related to construction, that would be a “good” time to do a neighborhood plan, O’Quinn said.

Correction: The original story mistakenly attributed a quote to city staffer Ilona Blanchard when it should have been attributed to Mary Beth O'Quinn.