Hopkins thinks big

Three-day public forum on planned research center draws support, concerns from residents

About 20 residents of nearby neighborhoods attended the forums, led by scores of consultants and local government representatives. The biotech and applied research facility will be developed on the former Belward farm, a 108-acre parcel, currently approved for 1.4 million square feet of development.

Hopkins is looking to build as much as 5 million square feet of research space on the land, and is using the project as the catalyst to implement a sweeping vision that transforms 500-acres in the Shady Grove area west of Interstate 270 into one of the world’s premier locales for biotech and applied research.

County planners reviewing development capacity in the area, and Hopkins is partnering with property owners in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center to add upwards of 10 million square feet of development — comparable to the NIH campus situated between Wisconsin Avenue and Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, according Hopkins consultants.

For more than 100 years, Belward was one of the county’s landmark farms. Six acres around the farmhouse are a designated historic site. Neighbors in the Westleigh, Stonebridge, Mission Hills and North Potomac communities have known its development was inevitable, but still feel anxious.

‘‘It’s just an unknown,” said Lynne Rose, president of the 52-home Mission Hills Homeowners Association.

She and others who attended the forums appreciated how important the project could be for the county’s future, and the need to keep pace with emerging and existing research havens around the world.

But the immensity of the plan, especially going from 1.4 million to 5 million square feet at Belward alone, would mean having to increase building sizes from about four stories as approved to closers to 15 stories, residents said.

‘‘I’m worried by the enormity of the whole thing,” said Stonebridge resident Linda Culp, who has lived across Route 28 from Belward for 17 years. ‘‘I’ve seen cows grazing in that field. This is a bedroom community.”

Amanda Hall, another Stonebridge resident wondered whether the Hopkins vision is ‘‘realistic for this area.” ‘‘This is very different from why most people live here. If we wanted to live in an urban area, we would move to Bethesda,” she said.

Planning and transit

The challenge of arranging density away from residential neighborhoods while at the same time preserving some of the historical sense and scenic vistas of the Belward farm will fall to county planners.

Nancy Sturgeon, community-based planner with the county Planning Board staff, said the master plan for the area is expected to be updated this summer, allowing construction to begin within three to five years.

Meanwhile, the City of Gaithersburg continues to express interest in annexing the Belward property though officials have yet to formally proposed the idea to Hopkins. Officials at Hopkins repeated their satisfaction with the county planning process.

Pivotal to the Hopkins’ plan is to plan wisely so as to not have too severe an impact on roads and surrounding communities.

To that end, Hopkins is working hard to convince state transit officials to favorably adjust the alignment of the Corridor Cities Transitway — a proposed light-rail or rapid-bus line that would connect the Shady Grove Metro station with Clarksburg — to make stops on the Belward campus and in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center.

The university is also working with transit officials to help devise funding plans to advance the project, which is still in the planning and design phase, closer to the building phase. The Intercounty Connector is also key.

‘‘We do not want to have a development plan which outpaces the capacity of either the road network or a mass transit system,” said David McDonough, senior director of development oversight in the Hopkins division of real estate. ‘‘Could we start building tomorrow with no ICC or CCT? Yes. Is that of a scale that is world class? No.”

Without the CCT, Hopkins’ desired level density will not be possible. County planners will conduct traffic studies in the spring that will assume the CCT and ICC will be built, according to Sturgeon.

‘‘We’re not sure yet what the area can support ... but the CCT is not going to solve all the problems,” said Sturgeon said.

No debate

One thing will remain untouched on the Belward property is the six acres surrounding the farmhouse and dairy barn.

The farmhouse dates to at least 1891, and the barn is listed on the county’s historical atlas, said Claire Kelly, a county historic planner.

County historic planners will have to approve whatever is proposed for the site.

Residents, consultants and government officials were in agreement in that they do not want to turn the farmhouse into yet another passive museum exhibit on agricultural history.

‘‘This is a huge opportunity to be innovative and creative and to incorporate the community,” said Jeff Winstel, a preservation planner with the City of Rockville who also participated in the forums.