Plans for Washington Adventist Hospital’s relocation from its current site in Takoma Park to 48 acres in Silver Spring received the first of many needed approvals Thursday.

Parent company Adventist HealthCare, which also owns Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, announced its purchase of the land in April 2007. Hospital officials had decided in 2005 to move Washington Adventist because the 14-acre site in Takoma Park that it has occupied for nearly 100 years does not provide adequate space for expansion.

The hospital has hired consultants and worked with residents and elected officials in Takoma Park to determine the future of the Carroll Avenue site it will leave behind.

A special exception is necessary to build a hospital on the new property, which is part of the Westfarm Technology Park and is zoned for light industrial use.

The Calverton⁄White Oak location would keep the hospital’s number of beds at 294, but each would be in a private room and housed in an eight-story main building with two towers. The plans also include a nondenominational faith center, a healing garden, a two-story ambulatory care building, two medical office buildings, two multilevel parking garages and a helipad for patient helicopter transports. The cost of the new facility has not yet been determined, said hospital spokeswoman Lydia Parris.

The measures approved Thursday would allow permits to be extended to build roughly 800,000 square feet of office space on the site, as well as commit the hospital to minimize its environmental impact on nearby forests and wetlands, provide more than 2,000 parking spaces and coordinate with local public transportation. A waiver also was granted to set the distance between the main hospital and parking garage at 560 feet, 60 feet more than guidelines require. Commissioner Allison Bryant was not present for the 3-0 vote.

If the Board of Appeals approves the special exception, the hospital will next file for state regulatory approval.

After Thursday’s vote, Washington Adventist Hospital President Jere Stocks said the initial approval was an important first step and a ‘‘positive development” for the region.

Residents and officials from eastern Montgomery County testified before the Planning Board in support of the hospital’s move.

‘‘We believe that bringing a hospital to this location will bring economic development to an area that has long been neglected,” said Jane Redicker, president of the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce.

Tom McNamara, a member of the Greater Colesville Citizens Association, said the project would help elderly residents in the area, and residents from Riderwood, a Silver Spring retirement community located near the site of the proposed hospital, testified in support as well.

Former state Sen. Ida Ruben, who represented Silver Spring and Takoma Park for 32 years and once served on the Washington Adventist board, said the move was ‘‘essential” for the eastern part of the county and added that Takoma Park would not be adversely affected by the 7-mile move.

Christopher Magee, a Silver Spring-based orthopedic surgeon who said he has operated on more than 8,000 patients at Washington Adventist, said the current site doesn’t have adequate office space for staff, and that a move to a larger site is ‘‘critically important.”

‘‘I’ve never been able to get an office at Washington Adventist Hospital,” he said. ‘‘... We need this project.

Hospital plans

The new Washington Adventist Hospital planned for the White Oak⁄Calverton area of Silver Spring will include:

294 beds in private rooms in two main eight-story buildings

A 60,000-square-foot, two-story ambulatory care building

Two multilevel parking garages

A nondenominational faith center

A helipad for helicopter transport of patients within the hospital