Montgomery County officials will soon consider updating a master plan covering part of Takoma Park, potentially laying the groundwork for significant new mixed-use development on adjacent university and hospital land.
Gaithersburg-based Adventist HealthCare’ Washington Adventist Hospital sits next to Washington Adventist University — separately owned and operated outfits, but both affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist church. Together they own a site of about 43 contiguous acres, roughly bounded by Sligo Creek and Carroll, Garland and Maplewood avenues.
The hospital transferred its emergency department and some other services to the new Adventist Healthcare White Oak Medical Center in 2019. It reopened for a stint during the pandemic, but has since shuttered completely. Its deactivation presents significant redevelopment potential, which could also tie in to new infill on the university campus next door.
The combined Adventist site represents what Melissa Williams, a Montgomery County planner, called the “largest opportunity” for development in the draft Takoma Park Minor Master Plan Amendment — a high-altitude land use and transportation planning guide that wants to see a larger, 132-acre portion of Takoma Park become a more walkable, mixed-use place. The Adventist site is a decisive piece of that larger regulatory puzzle, for which Williams has served as lead planner.
