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Suburban Hospital received sharp criticism from nearby homeowners during a public hearing last week for seeking to permanently close part of Lincoln Street as part of its expansion plan.

The local citizens association subsequently filed a motion in an attempt to stop the expansion plan from being considered by the Board of Appeals.

Hospital representatives said they have exhausted other options for the expansion, which includes relocated surgical rooms and increased patient and physician space at the hospital located off Old Georgetown Road across from the National Institutes of Health.

Residents said that cutting off Lincoln Street's access to Old Georgetown Road would greatly disrupt traffic patterns and create an unsafe environment in the Huntington Terrace neighborhood around the hospital. Residents also objected to the 23 homes that would be destroyed.

The hearing took place on Aug. 26 before Diane Schwartz Jones, an assistant chief administrative officer for the Office of the County Executive.

Jones will make a recommendation on the closure to the county executive, who will make a recommendation to the County Council. The council has final say.

The Montgomery County Planning Board will hold a meeting on Sept. 25 to consider revising Suburban Hospital's special exception to make way for the entire expansion. The matter will then go to a hearing examiner for the Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings, and then to the Board of Appeals, which will make the final decision.

The Huntington Terrace Citizens Association filed a motion on Aug. 28 to have the Board of Appeals dismiss the hospital's application to modify the special exception. The motion states that until the County Council makes a decision about Lincoln Street abandonment, the expansion plans as a whole cannot be considered.

"The hospital does not own or lease Lincoln Street, nor does it have any contract or other document assuring that it will so own or lease Lincoln Street," part of the motion reads. "Unless and until the County Council approves the petition for abandonment, the hospital may not prosecute its special exception request."

"We anticipate that the process will continue to move forward given that the County Attorney's office has acknowledged Suburban Hospital's legal right to file and process the applications," said Suburban spokeswoman Ronna Borenstein-Levy in a statement.

County Attorney Leon Rodriguez said he had spoken to the hospital on the matter before Aug. 28.

"Suburban does own the street, subject to a right of way for the county," Rodriguez said.

He noted that he had not seen Huntington Terrace's Aug. 28 motion to the Board of Appeals and was not responsible for ruling on it.

At the Aug. 26 hearing, hospital representatives testified that the expansion would create a safer operating environment for doctors, reduce the risk of cross-contamination and infection in patients, allow for more advanced medical equipment, and create more parking.

"We've reached the limit of what we can accomplish through renovation," said Gene Corapi, senior vice president of operations at the hospital.

Dr. Dany Westerband, medical director of the hospital's Trauma Center, said the expansion would prevent an unsafe configuration of surgical rooms and improve upon current conditions at the hospital.

"I know from experience, unfortunately, that you never want to have an elongated surgical suite," he said.

Martin Wells, a traffic consultant working with Suburban, said the traffic impact of closing Lincoln Street could be absorbed by other roads in the Huntington Terrace neighborhood just west of Old Georgetown Road.

"Neighborhood residents and commuters have many options," Wells testified.

Studies conducted by Wells' firm on a weekday showed that 81 to 85 percent of car traffic on Lincoln Street was hospital-related, while 10 to 15 percent was commuter-related and 4 to 5 percent was traffic from the National Institutes of Health, located across Old Georgetown Road.

But many residents argued that the hospital had discarded previous plans that would have preserved all of Lincoln Street. The facility could achieve its medical goals without forcing the closure of part of the east-west road, they said.

"It is our Main Street. Our residents rely on it every single day," said Bob Deans, a board member of the Huntington Terrace Citizens Association, in a prepared statement.

Norman Knopf, an attorney representing Huntington Terrace residents, claimed the hospital was not meeting the legal standard for closing the road by claiming that the expansion would benefit the general health and welfare. He said relevant law is intended to protect nearby residents.

In response to Wells' traffic numbers for Lincoln Street, Knopf said, "Capacity is not the test, we submit, for closing a road." Knopf argued that if it were, many subdivisions would only have one street.

Resident Robert Resnik called the four-hour hearing a "subterfuge" and accused the hospital of attempting a "land grab."

The public comment period on the hospital's application to close the road is open through Oct. 10 at 5 p.m.

"This is going to be a very difficult decision," Jones said.