Broadlands Hospital

Donna, Those are some very good points.

 

Donna made think of something I did not think of when most of you are home evenings and weekends this hospital will be busy busy especially on the weekends and early evenings with visitors and most of the criminal element showing up on friday and Saturdays with doing their typical crimes and the occasional shootings and stabbings fight injuries. Of course all their hommies will naturally want to come and visit and might say hmmmm look at those nice and pretty homes across the street or we got an whole neighborhood for our own personal treasure chest. Do any of you think only sweat little old ladies are going to be going here.

You are not going to have all that activity with office buildings on weekends and evenings and office buildings don't have the criminal element using their services.

Cliff did you spend evenings during a busy friday and Saturday at an hospital. Watching the criminals show up with their injuries??????? Or see all the visitor traffic on weekends and evenings when an office would be closed. A good part of criminal injuries happen in leesburg and with the no light toll road which would be quicker for an ambulance the no light less traveled toll road to the hospital or the busy rt 7 with the zillons of lights to that hospital.

I will say it again the population increrase is between brambleton and south riding and and very little around the broadlands in comparison. the transition area is mostly left between leesburg and broadlands and if they were using that in there studies as an high growth area then they are flat wrong especially with this new NO growth board. There is virtually no land between belmont and the reservoir and the creek all the way to rt 7 so your thinking there is going to be a lot of homes there is wrong just look at the satellite view on the map there is hardly any land to build on there when you take in the watershed and the quarry.

So there Attack Dog and Cliff and t8 and others is that something to think about other then architecture

Lee j

 

Oh please. Broadlands isn't some secret neighborhood that only residents know about. Ashburn itself already has the nickname of cashburn. Everyone in NOVA knows where we are.

 

I thought it was mentioned already that the lot isn't just slated for an office park, but also a hospital. Yes it would require some rezoning, but it was possible to build one on that site. If they really did research before buying then they would know this.

 

And you are aware there there are still millions of square feet of commercial space still unbuilt in Broadlands? The hospital site, Broadlands Blvd east of Clyde's, along Demott south of Waxpool.
It's always been part of the Broadlands plan.
Something will be built.
You are welcome to express your opinion. It's good to know that you don't base it on any facts. That's fine, too!

 

Does not require a re-zoning. Special Exception approval to the current zoning.

 

Donna, that is the kind of information we have been asking for. Excellent. I appreciate the helpful perspective.

A couple questions to clarify about demand/need for special services:
1. Let's say there isn't enough demand for both hospitals to have a special cardiac surgery unit. But wouldn't one hospital choose its specialties and become known for that (i.e. one is known for cardiac care, another for pediatric)?

2. Isn't there enough demand and need for general emergency and healthcare provided by two hospitals, aside from the specialties.

3. You quote 76% capacity and I trust that is correct. By the time the new hospital is built and considering the influx of new people to our county, is it reasonable to assume that we will meet capacity by that time? If we wait until we're at 99% capacity and then decide to build a new hospital, wouldn't that be harmful to the community?

4. Would the new hospital make the considerable investment they are about to make if they weren't sure that they would have enough demand to meet expenses? We have to assume their mission isn't to lose money, so I assume there is some due diligence on their part.

For Cliff and others, did residents who bought near that land believe there was an office park going in there? Is the hospital some recent switch in plans or was it always kind of left in the air.

Donna, this information is good. On a personal note, I have been objective in this and am an agnostic basically because we will most likely be long gone before the hospital is built. From my reading on this forum, you have not been some innocent victim--many of YOUR posts were condescending and insulting, so for you to cry about character assassination just doesn't play here. If you are going to insult and mischaracterize others' positions, then it's going to come back to you.

The reason I first posted to you was because I was incredulous that someone whose mission was to influence public opinion would post with such a snarky attitude here.

I think the information you provided was helpful, but as a caveat to others, I think it is disingenuous to say you are not biased. You are and that's fine, because you are employed by a competitor and actively lobbying against a competitive hospital coming in. That's your passion and your job, and I'm fine with that--it doesn't mean you are necessariy misrepresenting facts, but you will view every argument from the perspective of your employer. I still have an issue with one hospital actively lobbying against another--especially from what I've heard from others about past scare tactics (needles, etc)--but I appreciate this latest post because it is thought-provoking and carries legitimate points.

 

Donna's first two points would be valid. If you believe that this single hospital is all that is needed now for over 300,000 residents, plus the thousands more coming.
Donna quotes 76% occupancy for the past several years. I'll assume that's true. 80% is the level where more beds are needed. If you reach 99%, you've got a crisis, not just a need for more beds. This leads to reroutes, etc. This was happening regularly at Loudoun hospital prior to Inova taking over.
The percentage of Loudoun residents that leave the county for services is still over 50%. Although there are many reasons for this, it is a significant number.
There is also a need to bring in more doctor's and specialists. Anyone who has had to wait weeks or months to see one knows this. An additional hospital and associated medical services will bring in more. The number is not static.

Contrary to Lee's incorrect statements, there is far more APPROVED residential units north of Brambleton than south.....Moorefield Station, Loudoun Station, One Loudoun, the retirement community off Loudoun County Parkway, the several communities west of Belmont Ridge on either side of the Greenway. This is tens of thousands of APPROVED units.
Eventually, Brambleton and Rte 50 corridor will expand to the point of needing a third hospital in 10 to 15 years. This hospital will also help serve the population base of western Loudoun, most of which is on the Rte 7 corridor or north.

As far as traffic, I will point out again that Broadlands Blvd is designed as a major collector road to service millions of square feet of commercial property. When it gets completed at both ends, traffic will increase tremendously. It is not a residential street.
I will also point out again that the county staff traffic study showed that Clyde's generates more weekend trips than the hospital will. The vast majority of hospital traffic is also Mon-Fri 9 to 5 because that is when the medical office buildings are open.

 

I'm just amazed by the number of residents that I've met that seem to think this community should not change anytime after they moved here. It's a young community. Many changes will be in the future. Move to an established area if you don't want any or too many changes.

 

The property is zoned PDOP. Planned Development/Office Park. This zoning allows for many uses and dozens of others via Special Exception. Hospital is listed as one of the Special Exception uses.
The Developer was marketing the site for an Office Park. I have the concept plan if anyone wants to see it.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Cliff.

 

Some relatively current news

http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2007/oct/16/Inova-West-Wing-HCA-Broadlands/

 

I think that an office park would:
a. Bring more traffic and noise to our neighborhood
b. Bring more benefits to the residents of the Broadlands (Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers and the likes)
c. Fit in better in a nice residential area

T8 -
Common sense is common, it is not exclusive to an individual or small group!

 

Then you may want to move next door to Fairfax Hospital, or better yet, move to the lovely area surrounding the top hospital on the east coast, Johns Hopkins!

If you think that having a great hospital near to your house enhances your neighborhood, make a trip up there, like I have with my daughters.

 

Sorry if this was said but I'm still reading the thread boom since my last visit.

Here's an idea. If the homeowners in the area successfully manage to block HCA from building a hospital as they plan, then the homeowners need to set up a fund to reimburse HCA for the lost value in the use of that property.

I mean, it's only fair that such a proposal goes both ways, right?

(Deactivate mild sarcasm now.)

- A

 

Still catching up....

One could, but one could also argue for every skilled worker the hospital attracts, it will attract one unskilled laborer, and then of course there's this absolutely incredible gem of an assertion:

Absolutely. Local restaurants especially will benefit, as the professionals working in the building will not want "hospital food" every day and will order out form the locals because they're nearby, or will go to the local places for lunch. PLUS!!! As people are fond of mentioning, a hospital is a 24x7 operation -- so even the night shift will get hungry, and often the hospital cafeteria isn't open to serve them. More business in the off hours, too....

Oh, but according to lee, the hospital will attract thugs and criminals who will vandalize all the businesses! And rob them! Oh noes!

 

Cliff has, repeatedly, offered to do just that. As soon as I have time I plan to take him up on it.

 

lee, were you e e cummings in a prior life?
wow....

From what I understand, by a pro-growth board with a vested interest in ensuring INOVA maintains its monopoly. Do you have an answer for that? I'm listening, because I'm truly undecided on this issue specifically regarding the location of the hospital.

"HCA owns the land" isn't a hard fact? I know, I know, just thought it bore mentioning.

Much as I don't think this is the issue at all, should INOVA be allowed to build a hospital on the site, instead of HCA? Really peeps, this isn't about the company, until it becomes about HCA getting approval and INOVA being able to influence the board enough to get its way when it lost the challenge to HCA's COPN. At least, that's how it's been portrayed so far, and I'de be very interested to hear that contested convincingly.

Perspective, please. I'm willing to bet none of us sit in Waxpool corridor traffic for a zillion hours with potentially serious or life-threatening illnesses.

 

PS. Bull. You have no way to know that (A) such a HUGE number of the hospital's clients will be criminals and that (B) so few of an office park's won't be.

Dismount the high horse, please. Nonsense like this hurts your arguments, and Donna's last post was very effective, in my opinion. You're hurting her here by invoking her name.