'Science City' will be scaled back, council president predicts
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
October 6, 2009
Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews said Monday that an ambitious plan to build a 60,000-job "Science City" in Gaithersburg would be drastically cut back before legislators finish with it.
"I think it will be scaled back," the Rockville/Gaithersburg Democrat said, using the language of Science City critics. "It's a major concern of mine."
The Interstate 270 corridor is already among the nation's biotech breadbaskets. Developers led by Johns Hopkins University are hoping to escalate development in the area and make "Gaithersburg West" off Route 28 a world center of biochemical research. They have been encouraged in their efforts by the billions of dollars pouring from the federal government to meet President Obama's goal of "restoring science to its proper place."
But a small coalition of neighborhood groups, environmentalists and "smart growth" planners have protested the Hopkins plan, saying that it's too much development, too quickly. Andrews, who lives near the Science City area, is their most powerful political friend so far. He is organizing a town hall meeting for Wednesday night.
Hopkins has countered with a lobbying offensive of its own, hiring a handful of some of the region's top development lobbyists, including former Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce leader Rich Parsons. University real estate executive David McDonough told The Examiner Monday that the issue was critical and couldn't be compromised.
"We're competing around the country and around the world," he said. "We're either going to be a world class center for science or we're not."
Montgomery County has long prided itself on its progressive, hard-thinking approach to development that balances the need for jobs and capital development with the need for public transportation and efficient, close-to-work housing.
Andrews said Monday that previous biotech developments in the area have created tens of thousands of jobs.
"We should pay close attention to the jobs-housing balance," he said. "It's something the Gaithersburg West plan would undermine."
