Virtua Gets First Approval For New Burlington County Hospital

TRENTON, NJ (CBS) -- A South Jersey healthcare provider is moving ahead with a long term plan to build a new hospital in Burlington County.

Virtua Health has received approval from the New Jersey Health Planning Board to proceed with a proposal to replace its hospital in Mount Holly with a new facility on the 110 acre Hogan Farm 3 miles away in Westampton.

But that's far from the final word on the matter.

An application for a certificate of need must still be approved by the Health Commissioner, and the planning board's recommendation comes with 13 conditions, including a requirement that the state Department on Environmental Protection sign off before construction would begin.

Hopes are to start work next year and open in 2022. Virtua, in a statement, vowed to "work with residents and surrounding communities to be a good neighbor during the planning of this project and for years to come, just as we did when planning the Virtua Voorhees replacement hospital in Camden County."

That facility opened in 2011. Virtua operates a third hospital in Marlton.