New Hospital Rt 50 annouced

Fair 'nuff.

Redon1 mentioned a vote... this stuff gets voted on? Not by us, surely?

I mean, I know stuff like public/govt funding gets voted on, like how every other district in the county but the Broadlands district voted against the Broadlands Community Center.

But would it really be put to public vote whether or not it actually gets built?

 

that was just a gues on my part- we may nto have any way in it as voters, but i sure hope we do.

 

No offense, Redon1, but your head has been filled by the fearmongoring about a hospital nearby. I spent hundreds of hours researching this stuff, including all of your concerns, the last time this went around.
To answer a few:
1) Ambulances stay on main roads, not cruising through the residential streets at hgh rates of speed. The Emergency entrance will be on Belmont Ridge Rd. 99% of the emergency vehicles will most likely be confined to the Greenway/Broadlands Blvd/Belmont Ridge.
2) Reston/Lansdowne average 1-3 helicopter trips PER WEEK. Helicopters tend to fly main lines-of sight. Such as Greenway, Potomac River. The helipad will be behind the hospital in a valley tucked against the Greenway.
3) Ambulances RARELY have the sirens on as they approach the hospital unless it is a life threatening situation.

Almost every hospital in Northern Virginia is SURROUNDED by residential areas.

It's nice to have another hospital 5 miles away....what if it is on reroute because of not enough room...and Reston is on reroute...this has happened often. We don't have enough beds in this county!!!! Durng the last flu epidemic, the nearest hospital with beds was Inova Fairfax.

I would also note this hospital will pay millions of property taxes to the county, bring in hundreds of high paying jobs, and bring a Fortune 100 company to the county....this is EXACTLY what virtually every Loudoun County Supervisor has said we need to do!!!

Last go around, HCA also offered to widen Belmont Ridge Road from the Greenway to Brambleton. This is a HUGE road proffer.

Technosapien-
The hospital issue is currently mired in the courts. Inova was suing the State for giving BRMC approval. HCA was suing the county for turning it down. I believe that HCA will attempt to work with the new Board. I would expect to see the lawsuit canceled or put on hold. HCA will reintroduce the project. It will be reviewed by county staff then it will go to the Planning Commission. They will forward a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors who will vote on it. Last time around county Staff supported it, the Panning Commission and BoS did not.

Lee-
Bone up a bit on the Special Exception process. There is virtually NO property that is zoned for a hospital by right in the county that is large enough and has the required public utilites.
There are dozens and dozens of other uses for that site that are listed under Special Exception. The Special Exeption process gives the county a chance to review a project to determine that any possible negative impacts are mitigated. This was done and county staff supported it. The previous Board of Supervisors approved 84 of 85 Special Exception requests they reviewed.

 

Lee, we need to talk. Lunch?

 

I sent you a pm and I will be awake for awhile if you want to call tonight.

Lee j

 

...after reviewing HCA's/BRMC campus/plan with a fine tooth comb & a slightly OCD eye...

As Cliff mentioned

1) the actual structure sets back from the street several football fields from the adjacent homes. In that space there are multiple layers of sound buffering, large water features, dense landscaping...etc…to reduce noise.

2) The vast majority of the traffic will either use the Greedway/Belmont and a very small section of Broadlands Blvd.

3) Unlike Inova - HCA WILL pay taxes, bring more jobs, more choices and generate taxable income. Thats right folks INOVA is classified as a Not-for-profit and pay little to NO taxes…I wonder who makes up that delta???


...Inova recently announced their expansion plans for Cornwall (in Leesburg)

Did you know that INova presented a list of (example here) 1-25 improvements - however if the Town and/or the LoCo BoS approves anything related to HCA/BRMC than Inova will only provide a list 1-5.
This just doesn't pass the smell test with me.

 

Ok I have a brilliant idea as usual The biggest concern about this hospital so lets do a test over a several month period. Lets have the emergency vehicles go to the proposed site the way it will be like when built. Day and night lets run these vehicles with lights and sirens just as they would if the hospital is built. ANds let the the people decide if they can live with the noise. Also land a medivac 3 or four times a week which cliff says is all the times one will land at the hospital during each week. If you can't do this simulation or make excuses that you can't do this then I believe you all are full of crap that the noise will not interfere with the residential.

If they are willing to spend the kind of money to improve belmont and build this hospital then this test would be a drop in the bucket to make sure what you all are saying is not a bunch of bull. OK now walk your talk and we will have the real answer. Personally I don't live near there and really don't care one way or another but here is your chance to put to reality to what you say. Yes it would be nice to get belmont widen but not at the cost of the neighborhood sanity.

Lee j

 

Would having a hospital in Broadlands increase or decrease property values overall? Would those closest to the hospital take a hit with others increasing in value?

 

Ummm, how can an ambulance go the "proposed way" when the roads do not exist yet? Doubt the helicopters will land in the current wooded area where the hospital is "proposed" to be built.

And lastly, if you do not care, then WHY comment?!? Wait! You comment on just about everything Broadlands!

 

Scared of the reality of a test T8. You can make that property accessible for a test anytime you want for helicopters and emergency vehicles. we make properties accessible all the time in the construction business. Emergency vehicles go into tough to get spots all the time. T8 I care about all loudoun and all of the dc area. My comments on this broadlands board I try to keep to our general area about development, but I am just as concerned about the rest of the place such as a new parkway from the toll road to west virginia. development around the leesburg airport whats happening over on rt 7. And certainly the dulles south area and 606 ringing the airport. Western loudoun does not need much help with the recent zoning, but the town of leesburg really needs to clean up the mess of ugly developments that have been built over the last 15 years and I think leesburg is starting to see the light that lot of that city in the last many years has the junkyard look. As yes we need more wineries as they are one of my favorite tours I give my friends especially the ones from out of town and I rarely even drink wine but I love the romance of the wine industry and our wonderful wineries large and very tiny. Terrific rural growth industry for western Loudoun and virginia as a whole. Now get those tests going and no excuses because we can shoot everyone of your excuses down

Lee j

 

Lee, old buddy, the only thing flowing out of your keyboard is crap, not brilliance.
Have you done any research yet? No.
Have you spent hours around a hospital monitiring the noise? No.
Have you spoken to the MedEvac helicopter pilots? No.
Have you spoken to ambulance and EMT drivers to hear their policy about siren use? No.

Don't worry. I don't expect you to do any of this. Why let a little education and facts get in the way of a good ignorant rant!

 

Talk and paper studies are one thing but live tests tell the reality where everyone can touch it and feel it and of course hear it. I live near a temporary fire station to me further then that proposed hospital is to the residents over there.

Here is the fantasy we were told that by the fire dept. that they would only use the sirens when absolutely when necessary and rarely at night. The reality and I work at home I hear sirens almost every day and night so their policy was just a lot of talk and I have seen then use the sirens right past our neighborhood with not a vehicle in sight. So a reality test would put all those paper studies to rest one way or another. The county has developed a new proposed road network for the greenway LCP area and it does not take a rocket scientist to know dumping most of the traffic onto 606 will create another waxpool nightmare and yet there is the sterling interchange sitting there with no proposed direct connection from our area. hellooooo.

Hey Cliff I am just asking the tough questions and I don't need a lot of paper when a real test for a few months would be even better. In the architectural business when I worked for this commercial architect was give the client as much paper as possible to justify the fee. Whether architects will admit that or not or have two million reason why there are so many sheets of plans a thick set of plans justifies the fee.

Lee j

 

Hey cliff and others I am not saying not to build the hospital but give the residents a test in reality not just a bunch of paper. They deserve a chance to be heard as you all screaming the loudest for the hospital don't live close to that proposed hospital so the noise issue whether real or fantasy wouldn't bother you all one way or another.

Then if it does become a problem is the story then they should of never bought there and too bad. I am tired of hearing one should of not bought there even though they were first and there are a lot of homes close to broadlands blvd and believe me with clydes there and the school administration building there and all the other stuff going to be there. The traffic around there will be enough those sirens will be blasting all the time. Loudoun hospital is isolated from the residential and there are no retail by loudoun hospital which produces far more traffic then the office by loudoun hospital so hence more traffic more use of sirens.

Hey just do the live study and be done with it. We do it all the time with story poles to see if views will be blocked and laying out buildings before we build them. SO our clients and and surrounding people can see how it will effect them, that is what a good builder designer architect does not just rely on paper.

Lee j

 

Well it's clear we'll all have our own agreements and disagreements on this topic. I'll personally be happy when the build the hospital no matter where it gets located (as long as it's still nearby), because I want me one of them high-paying jobs Cliff mentioned.

Uhm. I think the point several of us are trying to make is... they won't be running with lights and sirens blaring through empty streets through residential areas. Ambulances are not fire trucks... they have different siren use rules.

Cliff said one to three times a week, not three to four:

Just sayin'. Plus, until they have a pad, where should they be trying to land?

If residential noise concerns were the reason HCA was denied permission to build there, then I would agree it's on them to conduct these experiments and show it's not a concern. But if not, what do they need to prove, and why should it be on their dime, and the dime of the private medical transport companies? A main reason I think your proposed test probably couldn't be done as proposed, anyway) is that the companies that run medevac choppers and ambulances and trauma units have better things to do with their time, like answer medical emergencies and perform medical transports. If it could be done without wasting their time, go for it, whatever.

Having lived only a few blocks from a hospital in a residential neighborhood (the same hospital I worked for) I can honestly say that the emergency vehicles and the few times a week a helicopter landed there were non-issues for me. It may be that the noise doesn't bother me since I've always lived in pretty busy areas. But I think it more likely it's just a non-issue.

Doogood, in my experience having a hospital nearby does not harm property values. Depending on the buyer when it comes time to sell your house, it may be helpful (like, elderly buyers may really like having a hospital that close, or families with small children may appreciate the convenience of an ER that closeby). But that's just my experience -- a real-estate expert should chime in here, if they're allowed to.

 

technosapien all I am saying is the fire dept promised one thing about the sirens and it was good in the beginning but soon the reality was not what they promised. End of story.

Lee j

 

Lee, "tests" do not frighten me one bit. My wife worked across the street from Reston hospital in the professional bldg. She said she could rarely remember sirens blaring when ambulances would come in. As for helicopters, if Reston and other surrounding hospitals are get just a few a week, I doubt we would get more than a 1-2 a week as those hospitals get Loudoun's airlifts as of today. Airport noise anyone????

And I care about Loudoun too Lee. I grew up here, went to school here and have resided here most of my adult life. We NEED HCA and other companies willing to pay taxes and support our roads.

And yes, based on your comments about flex space, poor development, roads.. I would agree that your are into whine!

 

Loudoun -Inova is not as isolated as one would think. Those homes at the entrance to Lansdowne are not that much further away than what the closest homes in Broadlands to HCA would be. And with a pond and golf course adjacent there is not much in the way to knock down noise.

 

Well if the hospital does create problems for those living close to the hospital then all those that supported it should be responsible for making sure the ones inconvenienced to buy their homes and move them to another quieter area, such as Cliff trading his home with that spectacular view with someone near the new hospital How about it Cliff wiling to put that in writing in a contract with those closest to the new hospital???

Lee j

 

Yes and they are not homes and those apartments are probably more sound proofed then a home just by the nature the way they are sited and layed out. Besides they had a choice whether to move there or not the hospital was there first your people don't have that choice. Typical attitude in this county just cram things around people that were there first and let them be damed. Like the attitude of people who think "who cares since I don't live near the new hospital I don't have to worry about the noise in any case" I would like to hear from the people that live in the section closest to the new hospital not the ones cramming this down who live far away from it. We might have a different attitude then. Cliff you and t8 are the biggest supporters why don't you buy the two closest homes to this proposed hospital. Lot easier to make these decisions about supporting this hospital when you can't even be remotely effected by the noise.

Lee j

 

OH before everyone goes crazy here I have not made up mind whether I am for or against this hospital. I am just slowly gathering information to make an intelligent decision. I am for compatible and beautiful development to it's neighbors first. Especially when you build any kind commercial close to residential.

OK don't laugh too hard over the "intelligent decision" part

Lee j