Arlington鈥檚 business community is urging county leaders to approve the Virginia Hospital Center鈥檚 , arguing the project鈥檚 delays have already cost the company dearly.
The county鈥檚 lone hospital last fall to add a seven-story outpatient facility and a 10-story parking garage next to its existing campus at 1701 N. George Mason Drive. The County Board approved a land swap last summer to make the expansion possible, near the hospital on N. Edison Street for a property along S. Carlin Springs Road, and VHC has spent the ensuing months hammering out designs for the new buildings.
Yet some of the hospital鈥檚 plans have drawn ire from and alike, convincing the Board to push back any consideration of the expansion until the fall.
In a on July 23, Arlington Chamber of Commerce President Kate Bates called that decision 鈥渧ery disappointing,鈥� and urged county leaders to lend the project an 鈥渆xpeditious approval.鈥�
鈥淭he hospital is doing everything it can to accommodate the requests of neighbors and to honor good planning principles,鈥� Bates wrote. 鈥淎t this point, however, the cumulative effect of additional changes needs to be evaluated within the broader context of providing convenient, high-quality, patient-centered healthcare in a fiscally prudent way for the next 50 years.鈥�
Bates argued in the letter that the hospital desperately needs the expansion to cope with Arlington鈥檚 growing population 鈥� VHC expects it鈥檒l need an additional 85 hospital beds over the next five years to handle the county鈥檚 growth, and could use another 130 beds over the next 15 years. The hospital currently plans to convert around 120,000 square feet of existing outpatient space to 101 new beds once it can complete the proposed expansion.
Bates adds that 鈥減atients and visitors are frequently frustrated and unnecessarily delayed by current parking constraints鈥� at the hospital, making the roughly 1,800 parking spaces in the new garage a key element of the plan as well. However, the garage has attracted some of the fiercest opposition of any element of the project, with neighbors worried about its size and staff and activists worried that it overly encourages driving at the expense of biking or transit options.
Yet Bates points out that VHC has already agreed to shrink the garage by about 200 spaces from its original proposal, bringing down its height to about 67 feet in all.
Furthermore, she wrote that the hospital has worked with the community to add more buffers and greenery to both 19th Street N. and N. Edison Street, demonstrating 鈥渁 commitment to enhance the appearance and livability of the surrounding neighborhood.鈥�
According to a at a May community meeting, the hospital is planning 27,000 square feet of buffers around the hospital鈥檚 perimeter, in addition to lots of green space on the property itself. In all, the hospital hopes to build a 聽11,000-square-foot entry plaza with a similarly sized 鈥渨elcome garden鈥� nearby, and a 9,000-square-foot courtyard complete with a 鈥渟unken garden鈥� of tiered planters.
The hospital will also sketch out a 鈥渕aster plan鈥� for the site to give the community a roadmap for its designs on future expansion efforts, including a push to someday buy more land for the redevelopment of its older buildings and the construction of a new 鈥渃entral power plant.鈥�
In all, the Chamber sees this work as plenty of evidence that the Board shouldn鈥檛 press for any additional changes from the hospital and let the expansion move ahead quickly.
鈥淪ince the initial VHC project application, the hospital has made more than 100 modifications to the design in an effort to address issues raised by county staff and community stakeholders,鈥� Bates wrote. 鈥淭he Chamber respectfully requests that the Board prioritizes this effort and approves the VHC site plan application so this important project can move forward.鈥�
Both the Planning Commission and the County Board are set to hold public hearings on the project in September.
