Baltimore County's Design Review Panel on Wednesday gave its blessing to a planned Patient First clinic in northern Towson.

The site, in the 900 block of York Road, was most recently used as a car wash and used car dealership, which both closed several years ago.

Patient First offers urgent care, lab tests, prescriptions and other health services at 39 locations in the mid-Atlantic region.

The Towson location will be about 7,000 square feet and modeled after the prototype Patient First design, as pictured here. The site will have 45 parking spaces.

Ferd Onnen, who owns the property, said he expects groundbreaking on the facility to happen by the end of the year, pending the approval of zoning variances.

The main access to the site will be via Carver School Road (at the signaled intersection of York Road and Fairmount Avenue), with another access road for drivers coming from the north via Gerard Avenue, located between the site and the neighboring Monro Muffler and Brake shop.

An 11-foot-tall sign will be placed at the main entrance, with a 4'10" sign at the other entrance.

As part of a deal to secure two small easements from the Baltimore County Board of Education, engineer Dick Matz told the panel, developers will widen Carver School Road to allow for a new left turn lane and will work with traffic engineers on improvements to the intersection of York Road and Fairmount Avenue.

According to plans presented at the meeting, the project will be landscaped at the property line and adjacent to a stormwater management pond planned for the new Carver Center school, set to open this fall.

Some confusion arose in the Wednesday hearing when project representatives mentioned that County Councilman David Marks had casually suggested adding a welcome sign or Towson signage similar to what developers added across the street at the recently-opened Walgreens.

"In the absence of seeing anything, it's hard to comment," panel chairman John DiMenna said.

The Patient First project representatives said they would take that up as a separate issue should more concrete plans arise.