The Montgomery County Council gave final approval Tuesday to a new “Science City” plan that officials hope will turn the county into one of the pre-eminent research and development centers in the world.
The County Council voted 9-0 to approve a master plan that lays the groundwork to build a massive biotech center off Shady Grove Road just west of Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg.
Backers of the plan envision a life sciences research center anchored by Johns Hopkins University that would take advantage of the large federal biotech presence in the county and produce about52,000 high-paying jobs.
“We have done yeoman’s work to really put ourselves heads and shoulders above anyone else,” said Councilman Mike Knapp, D-Germantown.
Hopkins released a statement saying “this master plan demonstrates the best in smart-growth planning and provides the potential for high-paying bioscience and health care jobs, new mass transit, high-quality affordable housing, parks, and other important amenities that will benefit the entire county.”
County Executive Ike Leggett also praised the plan.
The approved plan was scaled back from earlier versions and has more safeguards against traffic congestion. The new plans allows for up to 17.5 million square feet of development, down from the original 20 million, and has new requirements for the percentage of space dedicated to biosciences as opposed to general office space.
But those changes have done little to allay the concerns of nearby residents and environmental groups, which say the project is still too big and the transportation assumptions underpinning the plan are faulty.
Key to the plan is a proposed light-rail or light-bus transit system that would connect Science City to the Shady Grove Metro station.
Tim Newell, a nephew of the woman who sold her farm to Johns Hopkins, said Hopkins is breaking the agreement it made when it bought the land at well under market value. Newell said his aunt wanted her farm turned into a smaller, “Jeffersonian” campus and said the issue is prompting him to head toward filing a lawsuit.
“Let’s just say we’re not done,” Newell said.
