Montgomery County buys land for new training academy

The Montgomery County Council voted Tuesday to pay $47 million for 127 acres of undeveloped land in Gaithersburg to house the workers who make public school lunches and the academy that trains police and firefighters.

The 6-2 vote by the council comes days after a council panel voted 5-0 to buy only half of the parcel, a field called the Webb Tract, along Snouffer School Road near Montgomery Village. Council members said they reversed course partly because the seller offered to reduce the cost by $225,000 if the entire property was bought by the end of September.