Suburban expansion plans approved

A Montgomery county zoning appeals board Wednesday approved Suburban Hospital’s plans to build a new addition and parking garage but required it to keep 12 houses that it owns and had planned to demolish for the $230 million expansion.

The five-member board agreed with the Huntington Terrace Citizens’ Association that demolishing the houses on Grant and McKinley streets and replacing them with gardens would diminish the community feel of the neighborhood.

The board will allow the hospital to tear down nine houses on a portion of Lincoln Street between Old Georgetown Road and Grant Street, which the hospital has proposed closing permanently as part of its building plans. The Montgomery County Council will decide later whether that road can be closed..

The expansion would add a 300,000-square-foot addition and a 1,200-space parking garage.

-- Katherine Shaver