Illustration from Johns Hopkins University A sketch of Johns Hopkins University’s plan for developing research and development space on its Belward Campus, looking east toward Darnestown Road and across Muddy Branch Road. The company is approved for 1.4 million square feet of space, although their preliminary plan maps out room for 4.7 million square feet.

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More than 1 million square feet of commercial space is approved for 108 acres of vacant farmland in the Great Seneca Science Corridor, but the property owner has redrawn its plan with more than three times that amount.

The Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday approved a preliminary plan amendment allowing Johns Hopkins University to map 4.7 million square feet of research and development space on its Belward campus, northeast of Darnestown and Muddy Branch roads. The Belward property is in the Life Sciences Center of the corridor, which includes about 900 acres between Gaithersburg and Rockville.

By approving the plan, the county is not signing off on any development beyond the 1.4 million square feet already approved, but the move allows the university to plan for future development.

The county’s staging requirements will not allow approval of more commercial space until transportation and planning goals are met, such as development of the Corridor Cities Transitway, a 14-mile rapid transit system that will run through Gaithersburg and Clarksburg.

With 1.4 million square feet of research and development space, an average of 714 vehicles will enter the site during morning rush hour and 602 will leave during night rush hour, according to a 2009 county traffic study.

Residents of the Mission Hills neighborhood, which abuts the property to the north, were initially unhappy about the university’s latest plans.Two roads planned for the northern edge of the campus cut into a 200-foot forest buffer laid out in the corridor’s master plan.

Traffic noise is residents’ main concern, Lynne Rose, president of the community’s architectural review board, said at a corridor committee meeting Tuesday.

After hearing the concerns, Johns Hopkins worked for 48 hours to change the plan, moving the roads south and out of the buffer, David McDonough of Johns Hopkins said at Thursday’s planning board meeting.

After he spoke, Rose said she was a happy neighbor.

jbondeson@gazette.net