This week, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the construction of a hospital on Route 50, Stone Spring Medical Center. This brings the long saga of HCA vs. Inova to, if not a conclusion, at least a resting point.

After almost a decade of debate, Loudoun supervisors on May 10 unanimously approved the county’s second full-service hospital.

StoneSpring Regional Medical Center-a 337,000-square-foot 164-bed hospital to be located at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Gum Spring Road near South Riding – is slated to open in 2015, according to officials with Hospital Corporation of America, the facility’s developer.

“Loudoun’s residents have long asked for another hospital and a choice in hospital care,” Tracey White, vice president of community and government relations, said in a statement. “It has taken eight long years to get the county’s approval of HCA’s project that will answer that call and we are pleased that residents are finally one step closer to getting the care and access they deserve. We look forward to serving the people of Loudoun County.” – Loudoun Times-Mirror

The funny thing about this outcome is that the past five years of community protests, shady astroturfing campaigns, lawsuits, recriminations and threats could have been completely avoided. The thousands of hours and millions of dollars spent by all the various entities involved in this fight could have been put towards more useful purposes, if HCA had simply referred to the county’s health care plan, and proposed a hospital for the Rt. 50 corridor originally.

There’s more below the fold…After four years, Loudoun got the hospital it wanted in the location it wanted. The County Comprehensive Plan guides development for the County, and all the debates and discussions that fill our news and discussion are generally spawned by developments that would violate that plan.

(County Comprehensive Plan – Land Use)

In light of this week’s decision, it is interesting to reflect on some of the comments and actions by the various parties over the past five years. For example, HCA swore they would not come to Loudoun if the Broadlands hospital was rejected.  

Before the vote, Margaret Lewis, head of HCA’s Capital Division, said the company had no immediate plans to build a full-service hospital on Rt. 50 because the area could not support such a facility. Tuesday, Foust reaffirmed that position, saying the vote against Broadlands did not change those plans.

“Rt. 50 is not an option for us to build a hospital,” he said, adding that the HCA-owned Glascock site is “clearly an inferior site” when compared with the Broadlands location or Inova’s property on Rt. 50. – Leesburg Today

It’s funny how that “not an option” became the best option, and was also the original option that the County planned.

We should always take comments from developers with a grain of salt, especially comments that are absolute in nature. When a developer says they “cannot” or “will not” do something unless they get their way, the saga of a second Loudoun Hospital proves the lie of that absolutist assertion. It is wise to follow the money. HCA coveted the wealthy Loudoun healthcare market, and was going to grab a piece of it in whatever way they could. Our Board of Supervisors did well to hold to the plan, and look with a jaundiced eye on the machinations of the hospital campaigns. They knew that HCA wanted Loudoun more than Loudoun wanted HCA, and in applying that knowledge, our County got what we wanted and needed.

It is okay when developers, and other monied interests, do not get their way when it comes to our land and our community. We, the voters of Loudoun, are the ones who get to choose who will do what where, through our elected officials and publicly developed plans in advisory commissions. In all cases it is the will of the voters that must supercede the wishes of developers.