Would you buy right next to a hospital?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way. The area around Suburban is a extremely noisy due to fire trucks, cars, buses, and helicopters. I would also worry about resale.

Currently zoned for Bradley Hills. Pyle. Whitman.

So are plenty of other neighborhoods. The streets around Suburban are like Grand Central station. Very unsightly.

[Anonymous]

OP, I used to live next to Holy Cross Hospital (within one block--I walked over when I delivered my first kid). I also closely followed the expansion of Suburban Hospital and the demolishing of multiple houses within that neighborhood because that's what Holy Cross wanted to do. In both neighborhoods, HOAs fought back and there was a lot of anger on the part of residents. Know this, hospitals are giant businesses and they are always seeking to expand. When we moved in it was my first house and in the first year or two we had no problems living next to the hospital. Then a round of renovations was completed and the hospital instituted pay parking throughout the campus and mandatory off-site parking for employees with shuttle bus service. Despite our neighborhood's permit parking we had all kinds of people with hospital business parking everywhere. All kinds of utility vehicles that didn't fit in the garage, cheap-a$$ people who didn't want to pay to park, construction equipment associated with work in the hospital--so many other things than what you think of as hospital business. For example, Holy Cross rented out some of its meeting rooms on weekends and we had Greyhound-size tour buses parked on our street for the groups that used them. Ambulances were not the problem--it was all the other crap. And then, to make things really fun, the Holy Cross campus went smoke-free and our entire neighborhood became an ashtray as employees took smoke breaks in our front yards and I had to breathe all kinds of second-hand smoke while walking the dog. I spent a lot of time in meetings at the hospital in an attempt to keep my neighborhood a neighborhood. Over the years Holy Cross had bought up all the houses on the block next to it with the plan of expanding. It was the first round of neighborhood fighting that got that plan defeated and got them to expand towards the beltway but they retained ownership of half of the houses and proved sh+tty landlords, doing only basic maintenance and essentially making eyesores of half our street. Is your house adjacent to any Suburban-owned house? They will never sell--you are going to be next to renters and keeping that house up is low on the hospital's list of priorities. Noise is not your biggest problem, it's how the hospital detracts from the residential nature of a neighborhood with the constant coming and going of people (many of whom you want nothing to do with) and its business nature. If you expect this to be your forever house and you buy near other houses still owned by Suburban I would worry about when they come out with their next renovation plan. There will be one and it's not going toward Old Georgetown Road. Many, many people in the Huntington Terrace HOA were livid about Suburban's garage expansion and the battle before the Planning Board (which the hospital obviously won) was epic. You should talk to some anti-hospital people in the HOA if you want to find out more or google around a while. The old Gazette covered it extensively and you might be able to find some articles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I used to live next to Holy Cross Hospital (within one block--I walked over when I delivered my first kid). I also closely followed the expansion of Suburban Hospital and the demolishing of multiple houses within that neighborhood because that's what Holy Cross wanted to do. In both neighborhoods, HOAs fought back and there was a lot of anger on the part of residents. Know this, hospitals are giant businesses and they are always seeking to expand. When we moved in it was my first house and in the first year or two we had no problems living next to the hospital. Then a round of renovations was completed and the hospital instituted pay parking throughout the campus and mandatory off-site parking for employees with shuttle bus service. Despite our neighborhood's permit parking we had all kinds of people with hospital business parking everywhere. All kinds of utility vehicles that didn't fit in the garage, cheap-a$$ people who didn't want to pay to park, construction equipment associated with work in the hospital--so many other things than what you think of as hospital business. For example, Holy Cross rented out some of its meeting rooms on weekends and we had Greyhound-size tour buses parked on our street for the groups that used them. Ambulances were not the problem--it was all the other crap. And then, to make things really fun, the Holy Cross campus went smoke-free and our entire neighborhood became an ashtray as employees took smoke breaks in our front yards and I had to breathe all kinds of second-hand smoke while walking the dog. I spent a lot of time in meetings at the hospital in an attempt to keep my neighborhood a neighborhood. Over the years Holy Cross had bought up all the houses on the block next to it with the plan of expanding. It was the first round of neighborhood fighting that got that plan defeated and got them to expand towards the beltway but they retained ownership of half of the houses and proved sh+tty landlords, doing only basic maintenance and essentially making eyesores of half our street. Is your house adjacent to any Suburban-owned house? They will never sell--you are going to be next to renters and keeping that house up is low on the hospital's list of priorities. Noise is not your biggest problem, it's how the hospital detracts from the residential nature of a neighborhood with the constant coming and going of people (many of whom you want nothing to do with) and its business nature. If you expect this to be your forever house and you buy near other houses still owned by Suburban I would worry about when they come out with their next renovation plan. There will be one and it's not going toward Old Georgetown Road. Many, many people in the Huntington Terrace HOA were livid about Suburban's garage expansion and the battle before the Planning Board (which the hospital obviously won) was epic. You should talk to some anti-hospital people in the HOA if you want to find out more or google around a while. The old Gazette covered it extensively and you might be able to find some articles.

McMansions near Suburban are cheap because the whole are is basically a junkyard.

[Anonymous]

I think re-sale value near a hospital would be good. Big advantage to live near a hospital when you work in one especially because hospital staff need to go to work on snow days, etc.

[Anonymous]

Yes I would love that close to a hospital. I don’t see it as a negative thing at all.

[Anonymous]

Sibley or Georgetown, yes


Holy Cross or Shady Grove or Fairfax, no

Arlington or Suburban hospital, maybe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sibley or Georgetown, yes


Holy Cross or Shady Grove or Fairfax, no

Arlington or Suburban hospital, maybe

Why? Because of the hospitals or because of the neighborhoods?

[Anonymous]

Most trafic for the Sububan Hosp are on OldG rd. The streets behind the hospital are very quiet. Helicaptors landing is rare, a few times a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sibley or Georgetown, yes

Speaking of Sibley Hospital, this poor house was torn down and replaced by 4 massive McMansions.

http://www.thefleishergroup.com/ls/fleisher-sold-property-details.asp?id=39374&agent=0&mlsID=

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I could AirBnB to patient families and doctors, yes. To live in, no.

Can you clarify why? DH isn't really concerned but I'm worried for resale value.

Your concerns about the noise from ambulances and fire trucks also concern me. Also increased pedestrian, outpatient, and visitor traffic. I mean - that's also the reason I wouldn't live on top of a school either. To each their own.

There’s no increased pedestrian traffic in the neighborhood and people can’t turn into or out of the neighborhood going to/from the hospital.
It’s permit parking only too so no visitor or employee parking happens.

That being said shouldn’t a doctor working there buy in that neighborhood? Eliminating the commute and being able to go home for lunch seems great and should keep the property values up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most trafic for the Sububan Hosp are on OldG rd. The streets behind the hospital are very quiet. Helicaptors landing is rare, a few times a month.

It’s a level 2 trauma center - helicopters land more than a few times per month.
The landing is the least noisy part though it seems.

We do have a lot of helicopter traffic in Bethesda. Copters go up 495 on their way to A dress AFB, helicopters fly to Bethesda Naval/Walter Reed and then Suburban. It’s not really a bother though unless the news helicopters are hovering over the beltway (just a few times per year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most trafic for the Sububan Hosp are on OldG rd. The streets behind the hospital are very quiet. Helicopters landing is rare, a few times a month.

This article says 400-500 landings at suburban per year. You must not be noticing is all.

https://nihrecord.nih.gov/newsletters/2008/07_11_2008/story1.htm

[Anonymous]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburban_Hospital

[Anonymous]

We live one neighborhood over and are at Greenwich park a block down from Suburban almost every day.

The emergency vechicle noise is on Old Georgetown from the fire department and BCC rescue squad. We live on another major road. You get used to it after a while, and also they are pretty good at turning their sirens off at night.

As for helicopters, there's the nightly "VIP" flight from Walter Reed (Bethesda Naval) taking some high-ranking official back that's usually at 7 or 8pm. Medevac flights to Suburban are rare -- or at least I dont' hear them and we're about 1 mile away as the crow flies.

Also, Suburban has a top-notch pediatric ER so worth considering.

They are expanding the hospital a lot, and they bought all the houses on the adjacent street to tear down. On the plus side, I think that's all the expansion they have planned for now.

Bradley Hills is a good school and quite modern. Pyle is the most overcrowded MS in MoCo but our friends who have kids there say it's still good. Whitman has room to expand next door and will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sibley or Georgetown, yes


Holy Cross or Shady Grove or Fairfax, no

Arlington or Suburban hospital, maybe

Why? Because of the hospitals or because of the neighborhoods?

I'm guessing neighborhoods because there's no way you'd rank Sibley with Georgetown and ahead of the others mentioned for actual medical care.