New hospitals should not be required by to mitigate traffic they create because they provide a necessary service in the community, Holy Cross Hospital officials say.

Holy Cross is seeking state approval to build a hospital on Montgomery College's Germantown campus, located in one of four policy areas in the county that require 100 percent mitigation of trips created as mandated in the county growth policy, which guides development over a two-year period and ensures that infrastructure such as roads and schools are not overburdened. The County Council must adopt a policy by Nov. 15.

At a Sept. 22 Council hearing, Eileen Cahill, vice president of government and community relations for Holy Cross, said that hospitals should be exempted from the requirements because health services are a basic public need.

"Like a school, fire station or other such facilities serving basic needs of county residents, hospitals should not be subject to the rigors of growth policy testing," Cahill said. "...Upon the determination that a hospital is needed to serve upcounty residents, other competing public policies pertaining to growth management should not delay the timely delivery of a hospital."

Holy Cross officials did not provide comment by The Gazette's deadline.

Representatives of Adventist HealthCare, which is seeking state approval to build a hospital in Clarksburg, said it would be unfair for hospitals to be exempted after Adventist has received most of the land use approvals necessary for its project, including agreeing to improve roads.

"We think it's wholly inappropriate for Holy Cross to ask the county and the community for this special treatment," Robert Jepson, vice president of government relations and public policy for Adventist HealthCare, said. "They have proposed a project in an area with a severe traffic problem and are saying ‘don't hold us accountable for the traffic.'"

The Maryland Health Care Commission is unlikely to approve both hospitals.

Development projects in Germantown East, the city of Gaithersburg, North Potomac and Fairland/White Oak are required to mitigate 100 percent of the impact on arterial roads such as by improving intersections, according to senior planner Jose Dory. The areas were found inadequate under the Policy Area Mobility Review test, which measures rush hour travel times and allows more congestion in areas served by transit and has been criticized by those who say it is an inadequate measure of congestion.

The Council plans to look at ways to modify the test and that would likely affect Germantown East, but no project will receive special treatment, Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown said.

"In order for us to implement the Germantown Master Plan, we need to see how East Germantown can proceed. It's a very important part of the upcounty," Knapp said. "...It's a very odd implementation that would say East Germantown has a bigger problem than downtown Bethesda."

The County Council will also hold a public hearing Nov. 10 to allow hospitals as a permitted use in I-3 zones, like the proposed Germantown hospital site, if they receive a Certificate of Need from the state and receive the necessary site plan approvals.