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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will build an outpatient clinic in northern Montgomery County in the next two years, agency officials announced Thursday.

The site and construction schedule remain to be decided. Agency officials said a VA planning committee will choose a location for the site, which is scheduled to open in early 2010.

"The area has to demonstrate through population that it is in an underserved area and would benefit obviously from having a clinic, said Ken Sliker, marketing coordinator with the VA office in Linthicum.

Montgomery County was chosen as one of 31 sites nationwide for cIinics to be built the next two years. A second Maryland clinic, already chosen for construction in Fort Meade, is scheduled to open in 2011.

In a jointly written statement announcing the VA's plans, U.S. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin said the upcounty clinic will serve more than 4,000 veterans annually. Services will include primary care, mental health, a laboratory and other medical specialties. Cost, size and other details about the upcounty facility remain to be decided by the VA.

Both senators and U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-Dist. 8), of Kensington, praised the VA decision to locate a clinic in the county.

"This is an important and long-awaited improvement in the delivery of health care to our veterans," Van Hollen said in the statement. "I commend the Department of Veterans Affairs for taking the initiative that will provide improved health care access for veterans in Maryland and in Montgomery County."

Sue Sullam, a spokeswoman for Mikulski, said the VA's goal in building the clinics is "to make sure people don't have to travel more than 30 minutes for health care delivery."

"Instead of making veterans commute to DC for service, it positions a health care clinic that can best serve the needs of the whole surrounding area," she said. "Certainly it will help reduce the patient load in the larger urban VA facilities."

Sullam said outpatient care at VA hospitals and clinics has assumed greater importance during the last 15 years at VA hospitals and clinics. The VA provides about 90 percent of its services through outpatient visits, she said.