Litigation stalls plans for proposed office building

Planning Board had approved a preliminary plan for medical site in 2006

Joseph Fisher, a plaintiff in the suit against the Flower Avenue Shopping Center, Adventist HealthCare, and Park and Planning, said the main issue was parking.

‘‘All this comes about from looking at what the parking requirements for the shopping center are and meeting the current requirements,” said Fisher, a member of the Sligo-Branview Community Association, the principal group opposing the project. The proposed building would include parking spaces but would be built on the site of an existing parking lot.

Between 10,000 to 15,000 square feet in the new building would be leased by Washington Adventist Hospital to the Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that focuses on maternal child care for immigrant women. Fisher said that type of use should require additional county scrutiny.

‘‘Because the Mary’s Center is a change from traditional commercial use, we feel the parking needs to be reevaluated based on that,” Fisher said. ‘‘This is a building that would be taking away parking, and, we contend, not putting back enough parking ... and taking away parking for existing uses.”

Assistant County Attorney Malcolm Spicer, who is not an attorney for the defendants, said the appeal by the community group is awaiting a hearing with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The Circuit Court issued an opinion denying the community’s appeal last June, he said.

Attorneys for landowner Gregory Fernebok could not be reached for comment for this story.

Opinions about the project are mixed. Cynthia Rubenstein, chairwoman of the Long Branch Advisory Committee, said the committee did not have a formal opinion on the issue because its members stood on both sides.

After the Long Branch Advisory Committee’s final meeting Feb. 27, County Councilman George Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park said he would like to see the plan proceed to benefit low-income residents.

‘‘These are people with a lack of access to health care. ... This would help them,” Leventhal said. ‘‘There’s a shortage of clinic space. ... And this would be an investment in the community.”

County Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park disagreed.

‘‘I support the Mary’s Center, but in light of the changing nature of the project, we need to look at what’s the best fit for that corner,” Elrich told Long Branch residents last week.

The project was originally described as 55,000 square feet of health care services run by Washington Adventist Hospital that would include physicians’ offices, a surgery center and 10,000 to 15,000 square feet leased to the Mary’s Center.

Since the original announcement was made several years ago, the hospital has purchased land to relocate to the Calverton-White Oak area of Silver Spring and made a promise to maintain health services on its current campus in Takoma Park. Washington Adventist Hospital president Jere Stocks said Monday that those circumstances took some pressure off the hospital to open medical office space in Long Branch.

Stocks said the developer was nevertheless interested in keeping medical offices in the building, and the hospital was still committed to leasing 15,000 square feet in the building to the Mary’s Center.

In the meantime, the Mary’s Center is readying a 3,600-square-foot clinic nearby on Flower Avenue.

Lyda Vanegas, a spokeswoman with the Mary’s Center, said the site would open after the clinic hired a physician, which is expected by the end of March. The Mary’s Center estimates that 500 to 1,000 patients will come to the clinic in the year following its opening.

‘‘We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls already,” Vanegas said. ‘‘A lot of the pregnant women in the community don’t have anywhere to go.”