Suburban Hospital unveils final expansion plans

The plans, released last week, show a departure from previous designs to renovate the 65-year-old hospital. But elements that some neighbors have disputed for years remain in the plans, such as closing a connector street in the neighborhood.

The campus expansion would add a 300,000-square-foot building housing a surgical wing, physician office space and private patient rooms. The building will be four stories instead of seven stories as previously designed.

A new parking garage along Old Georgetown Road just north of the hospital’s current location would hold about 1,200 parking spaces, for a net gain of 735 parking spaces. The garage would be about 68 feet tall, with seven stories of aboveground parking. The garage would have two underground parking levels and one level partly underground.

The parking garage on the campus now is three levels — one above ground, one at street level and one underground.

The hospital will tear down 24 homes that it owns in the surrounding neighborhood to make room for the new construction. Hospital officials previously said the expansion would level 19 houses.

The hospital currently operates under a special exception in a residential zoning area.

The county must approve the hospital’s request to close a block of Lincoln Street in the neighborhood, in order for the expansion to go forward. The road splits the two blocks of Old Georgetown Road that would encompass the hospital’s new, larger campus.

Many, but not all, of the hospital’s Huntington Terrace neighbors have rallied against closing any part of Lincoln Street, saying it is the neighborhood’s central artery. Hospital officials say the road closure is the only way to unify the new and old segments of the campus.

Changes to the hospital’s previous plans — shortening the new wing and nixing the idea of a separate building for physicians’ offices — were made partly in response to ongoing objections from the Huntington Terrace neighborhood.

‘‘We did try to be very sensitive to the neighbors,” said Ronna Borenstein-Levy, hospital spokeswoman.

She said the hospital distributed packages to Huntington Terrace residents on Feb. 6 with information about the expansion. The only feedback and questions received so far have been ‘‘just for clarifications,” she said.

‘‘This is the same plan that Suburban has been trying to steam roll the community with for more than three years now,” said Bob Deans, Huntington Terrace Neighborhood Association spokesman.

The hospital ‘‘has what it needs for undeveloped property” to build on and shouldn’t push for closing Lincoln Street, Deans said.