Montgomery County residents upset over proposed 'Science City'
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
September 15, 2009
Montgomery County residents are irate over a proposed "Science City" in Shady Grove they say will bring tens of thousands of new cars to the area and "bury" them in traffic, require giant multilane highway interchanges, and destroy the character of area.
‘Science City’ plan
» 40,000 potential new jobs
» 5,750 new housing units
» 15-story buildings
» 20 percent public space, down from 25 percent green area
» Phased in over 25-35 years
Source: Montgomery County
But developers, university officials and business leaders say the proposal is a bold step to turn Montgomery County into a premiere biotechnology and life-sciences destination that will power the county's economy.
About 90 people have signed up to testify about the proposal to the County Council this week, so many that the council had to schedule two public hearings to hear all the testimony.
The county's planning board signed off on a proposal this summer to expand the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center from a suburban research center of about 7 million square feet to a high-density "work/live community" of up to 20 million square feet that would put housing and retail next to medical and biotech research centers.
The project will increase in stages the amount of workers at the so-called "Science City" from about 21,000 to 60,000.
To accommodate that increase, the county would rely on the Corridor Cities Transitway, a proposed public transit system of light rail or rapid buses along congested Interstate 270. It also would expand the area's roads to become six- and eight-lane highways and build five large interchanges to accommodate the increased traffic.
But opponents of the plan say the area is already too congested and the increased traffic will make life for nearby residents unbearable.
"It actually creates Tysons Corner," said Donna Baron, a coordinator for the Gaithersburg-North Potomac-Rockville coalition who has started the Web site www.scale-it-back.com.
Baron said she isn't against expanding the county's life sciences center, but the plan is simply too large.
But advocates of the plan, including Johns Hopkins University, say a new development needs to be big to make Montgomery County a key player in the global life-sciences economy.
"If this doesn't go big, then we've lost an opportunity ... [to] create the proper mixed use of development," said Marilyn Balcombe, president of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce.
Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, said the council will work on the issue in the fall and try to vote on the proposal by the end of the year.
