Broadlands Hospital

At the planning commission working session I spoke with the county traffic engineer regarding the traffic study conducted in support of the HCA application. That study made the assumption that since medical offices were a by-right use of the property, the traffic would be the same whether a hosptial was built or not. The comment I posted earlier was based on my question to the traffic engineer, where I asked about the reasonableness of the assumption that 400,000 square feet of medical offices would be built if the hospital did not go in. He responded that if the hospital were not built, then the property would likely revert to general office use, and that traffic associated with that use would be reduced from 16,000 to 6,000 trips. Those were his numbers, not mine. But they were consistent with the difference in traffic volume between general offices and medical offices I had found in my research.

Looking at the Aug 6, 2008 version of the traffic study, I note that the estimate for approx 400,000 SF of general office space is 3824 trips. That same report shows a hospital will generate either 2951 (pg 18) or 6139 (pg 25) trips -- a big difference, depending on whether you base the estimate on beds or square feet. (Other studies I reviewed used SF as the basis of estimate -- which generates the larger number of trips.) But since the traffic study does not differentiate between medical and general offices for the remaining 800,000 SF allowed on the site, each use must be estimated separately. Studies I have looked at indicate medical complexes generate anywhere from 2.5 to 4 times the traffic as a general office complex due to the high turnover in patients and generally longer operating hours.

For example, it would appear to me that a fully built out complex (1.2 Million SF) would generate the following weekday traffic:
Hospital complex = 25,000 (using factor of 2.5 for medical vs general office)
General Office complex = 11,500

While I agree with Cliff that the HCA representative stated they did not intend to build out the full 1.2 M SF, I also heard him state they would retain the entire SF allocation allowed by zoning (including transfering the SF allocation associated with the 3.8 acres they intend to set asise for Broadlands HOA use to the remaining acreage of their property). I can't help but wonder why they would do that if they did not intend to build out the additional space at a later date.

 

Citations on these studies please.

 

All please do not skip over the point that we desperately need business in Ashburn to support our schools and local establishments.

A hospital is a predictable business that will help us a great deal...

 

Does a hospital pay more taxes than a populated office park? I was under the impression that hospitals get tax breaks.

 

It depends on the type of hospital. Inova is a non profit hospital so it pays NO taxes. HCA is not so it will pay property tax etc.
Do they pay more or less then an office park? Don't know that answer but their is not office park that is currently wanting to build their so it is no money vs lots of money right now

Staci

 

Concerning the massive amounts of statisticis, reports, data analysis, etc. pro and con cited in the recent posts on traffic and trips: 5 miles up the road is a ACTUAL hospital with ACTUAL traffic and patients and visitors, etc. etc.. For those desperate for answers, go spend 24 hours (or do a sample) and see what the ACTUAL traffic, etc. is at various times on various days.

As a final nod to accuracy, divide your answers by the number of beds, number of square feet, number of anything, to adjust for size and service differences, and apply those factors to the planned numbers of the same parameters at the Broadlands facility.

Or not.

 

stoner-
Excellent point. I have actually done that, and at more than one hospital.
If Inova and their mouthpiece organizations want to try and scare Broadlands about the traffic, why don't they just show some pictures of the horrible traffic around Loudoun Hospital? Maybe because there isn't any?
That hospital and associated medical office buildings didn't even warrant a single traffic signal!

 

THAT IS SO SO SO TRUE. I've visited several offices around the hosptital and the hospital itself- no issues with traffic, parking, no pedestrians roaming around.

 

I'm glad to see that some reality is entering this discussion, rather than the petty details, rhetoric, and fear-mongering that dominate this topic. Yes, go look up the road at a similar hospital in a similar setting. It's not the horror scene of a community destroyed that some will have you believe.

Before moving to Broadlands, my family lived in a similar suburban community outside Chicago, in a house less than a mile from a community hospital. The housing prices were not depressed. The hospital did not contribute to excessive traffic. The hospital was a good neighbor, bringing valuable resources to the town. They paid taxes. We had good doctors affiliated with the hospital in medical practices close by. When my toddler needed stitches, twice, it was a terrific convenience that we could bring him 3 minutes away to an ER which treated him right away. The hospital built on site a top notch health and fitness center, available to the community for memberships. When we bought and sold our house, for a nice profit, the hospital was seen as a benefit and not a detriment to the community and home values.

Wake up people! This is one of the fastest growing counties in the country, and we have only one hospital. And it is not doing the job. My family does not/ will not go to Loudoun Hospital because the ER waiting times there are notoriously long. This single hospital is inadequate for our population. Those that oppose the hospital being built in Broadlands are being short-sighted and unnecessarily fearful. We need another hospital asap, not endless fighting that is delaying progress. Inova is motivated by greed in their efforts to prevent competition; don't fall for their rhetoric, misrepresentations, and dirty tactics which are designed to protect their bottom line, not protect citizens.

The only residents who may rightly fear some deterioration of their home values or be inconvenienced by the hospital's proposed location are those that are right along Broadlands Blvd. And sorry folks, you should have known that a busy road was not perhaps the best spot to buy a house. We all knew that major development was going to occur there, and for years we have known that a hospital was proposed in that spot. A few residents' poor decisions (remember: location, location, location) should not prevent the march of progress for the rest of Loudoun County.

 

I attended the first few hours of the Planning Commission work session tonight. A few points of interest:

County staff provided some population statistics for today and projected out to the year 2035. The Ashburn area consistently has about 50% more population than the Dulles area.

Good news for the Rte 50 crowd! HCA intends to open their free standing emergency services facility in late 2009 or 2010. It will actually be open before BRMC. It also already has an airport on site, so they don't need any additional approvals for a helipad.

BRMC was looking for construction hours of 7am-8pm Mon-Sat.
They agreed to revise these hours.

 

I don't think the argument is that we don't need another hospital. I think that most people recognize the need for another hospital for Loudoun County. The argument is where that hospital should be located in order to provide services to a wider area of citizens.

 

Argue this point to another several years of no hospital being built at all. The Rte 50 option is a distraction. If the Broadlands proposal is abandoned, the Rte 50 option will have its own lengthy and possibly failed effort to get off the ground. There will always be opposition or a better location to serve someone's financial interests.

A Rte 50 hospital will not serve the Broadlands area's needs. It's quicker to go to Loudoun or to Reston. Furthermore, a Rte 50 location will have less impact on Loudoun Hospital, which is what Inova is gaming for. Personally I think some more competition is needed for Loudoun to improve.

A quick story to illustrate: my daughter bit through her lip a few years ago and needed stitches. Loudoun Hospital ER is a disaster so we took her to Reston. She was seen right away, but we wanted a plastic surgeon to sew up the lip since she would have a scar. On this Sunday night they had no plastic surgeon on duty and said we would have to wait until the next morning. This is not acceptable. We tell them we will take her to another hospital. They find a plastic surgeon within 15 minutes. This is impact of competition - better service, or your patient/customer walks.

A hospital in Broadlands will serve this community best.

 

I'm really tired of INOVA butting in on this.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2008/10/29/news/fp374brmcpc102908.txt

 

Since Inova constructed/wrote the CPAM and HCA has met or exceed the criterian in the plan. It is rather odious that Steve Price (hired Inova mouthpiece of the firm McCandish Lillard) badgered the PC’s …all but demanding that a 2 hour Inova presentation in the Nov 20th meeting also be included.

The PC’s request of construction time is unprecedented and should be closely examined. If HCA is following the County Noise Abatement code, why is the Dulles PC making such request of restricting construction times from 8AM-5PM?

On a tie that bonds note – does anyone else see the correlation with Inova?

Inova hired Steve Price, McCandish Lillard in Sept 08, Lawrence McClafferty of McCandlish Lillard is the same firm who assisted Bruce & Christine Biggs to filed suit against our HOA (earlier this month). Guess who is footing the bill?…Inova

Build the damn hospital in Broadlands, It is unrefuted that the residents of LoCo need more beds and further delays is a vile attempt by Inova who is desperately holding on to their precious healthcare monopoly in most of Northern Virginia.

 

Valid point! Since BRMC is closer to 90% of the population of the county than
a RTE 50 location, the choice is clear.
The source for the population data is the Loudoun County Economic Development Committee.

 

Get used to it. Almost all of the opposition can be tied to Inova, right down to the so-called citizens group.

 

Only if you are not concerned with the future populations centers would that be a clear choice.

One should not only build a hospital to support where current residents live, but where future residents will live.

I believe the term is strategic planning.

 

And with the recent economy issues, predicting the future as it pertains to growth is a crap shoot right now.

 

Absolutely correct!
The population study presented last night project population statistics out through 2035. There is one flaw in the study. Upon closer examination, it puts Brambleton (same zip code as Broadlands) in the Dulles Planning area instead of Ashburn. If moved into the Ashburn area, where it should be, the numbers even more dramitically support the Broadlands location.

Also, there are over 10,000 approved units yet to be built that are closer to a Broadlands location than a Rte 50 one. Projects like Moorefield Station, Loudoun Station, One Loudoun, erickson Retirement community, etc.

Ozgood, we are agreeing more and more on this point!

 

We actually have at least three hospitals serving the residents of Loudoun County. Just look at the ads HCA is placing in the papers which show not only Inova Loudoun, but also Reston and Fair Oaks as hospitals serving the large concentration of residents in Eastern Loudoun. Just because a facility is not physically located in the county, doesn't mean it is not designed to serve county residents. That is why Virginia looks at health care on a regional basis (and maybe why the second word in BRMC is Regional). I think it is great that we Broadlands residents already have two major medical facilities within 20 minutes of our front doors. So there really is competition already. My family has used all of these facilities, and the care has been outstanding.

It's more than the people just along Broadlands Blvd who are fighting this. People on Glebe View and other roads within a mile of the facility are rightly concerned about the traffic and parking issues. When most of us bought here, there was no talk of a hospital -- rather we were told that the area in question would be town-house like office buildings. Van Metre even showed us the design concept. So we did not move in here blindly. Ironically, some of my neighbors who bought later were told not to worry because the hospital's application had been denied! A hospital represents a major change in the neighborhood concept we were sold on. The institutions currently bordering Broadlands Blvd (which we were aware of when we moved in) have proven to be good neighbors. We just don't want an industrial complex (which a hospital is) springing up across the street. I have heard people compare this location to Landsdowne, but there is one major difference. Landsdowne does not have any residential neighborhoods across the street.