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The Webb Tract is one step closer to becoming a multi-use industrial campus after the Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday agreed that the 130-acre parcel is the best option for housing its parks department's maintenance depot.

The Webb Tract on Snouffer School Road beat out three other sites — 28 acres in Travilah, the 77-acre McGowan property in Gaithersburg and 18 acres at Rock Creek Ridge — primarily because of environmental, accessibility and space issues at the other three sites, planners agreed Thursday.

The maintenance depot is on a 12-acre site on Crabbs Branch Way. It has 65,000 square feet of buildings — for storage, a fueling depot, fleet management, trade shops, offices and training facilities — holds 220 vehicles and has 370 parking spaces.

Planners passed on 28 acres west of the rock quarry on Travilah Road. Not all of the nine separate lots there are for sale and "environmental constraints" leave about 14 acres for use, said Michael Mah, an acting supervisor of park development.

The 77-acre McGowan property off Interstate 270 — north of Route 124, adjacent to where the City of Gaithersburg plans to build the mixed-use Watkins Town Center — was deemed unsuitable because of poor accessibility and limited space because of a right-of-way for the Corridor Cities Transitway.

The 18-acre Rock Creek Ridge parcel, on the south side of Needwood Road, held some promise. Adjacent to the planning board's Rock Creek maintenance yard, building the parks depot there would allow planners to combine two facilities, Mah said. But because the lot is the dump site for the Lake Needwood dredging project, it would require reworking the entire project.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has reached terms to buy the Webb Tract for $46 million and first build the parks maintenance depot and the county school system's food distribution warehouse and building maintenance facility on the tract's east/south side.

The county intends to hire a consultant to determine if the three facilities can fit on the roughly 40 eastern acres.

"Then only after that we will know whether it's feasible to have our facility here and exactly how big area we have and exactly where we will locate it," Mah said.

Despite agreeing that Webb Tract was the best site, planners were concerned that the county has not figured out how to pay for the project, or how much it is going to cost.

"It seems like we're in this funny situation where everyone's telling us this is the last train out of town. However, we don't know where it's going, we don't know how much the ticket will cost, and we're not sure if there are even any seats on this train," said Mary Bradford, director of the parks department. "… But it is the last train out of town, so, we're not sure. When you don't have design, you don't have money, you don't have ownership, you don't have anything — you talk about taking a leap of faith, this is a real one. But, there doesn't seem anything else to do. This is a very peculiar situation."

Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson, a Montgomery Village resident, was comfortable with the Webb Tract option only insofar as it would not preclude funding for other projects, especially the board's proposed headquarters in downtown Silver Spring.

"As I've explained to [Leggett's] folks, if I had a choice between funding a facility I don't need and one that I do, I would prefer to fund one that I do need," Hanson said.

After working out plans for the eastern side of the Webb Tract, the county would focus on the western half, where Leggett wants to build the county's police and fire rescue training academy. That project will await resolution of the Gaithersburg West master plan, the county's blueprint for turning a 900-acre area around the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center into a live-work hub of biotech and applied research.

The county's Public Safety Training Academy is in that planning area, on a 52-acre triangle of land bounded by Great Seneca Highway, Key West Avenue and Darnestown Road.

Under Gaithersburg West, which the planning board is reviewing ahead of sending it to Leggett this summer, the land is needed for up to 2,000 residences, a mass transit stop, an elementary school and a park.

Planners have called for a CCT stop and right-of-way, a fire station and an elementary school with a park, stormwater management facilities, the extension of Medical Center Drive, forest conservation easements, an internal road network and civic green spaces.

"With all those things we're sticking there, we're a little concerned whether we can really accommodate all this stuff," said Gary Stith, a deputy director with the county's Department of General Services. "… I just feel like we're sticking 20 pounds in a 10-pound bag here."

The Maryland Transit Administration is hosting a public hearing June 16 on the environmental and alternatives analyses of the I-270/U.S. 15 Multi-Modal Corridor Study, which includes the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway, a rapid bus or light rail line that would connect the Shady Grove metro station with Clarksburg. Review maps and talk with state officials from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Gaithersburg Middle School, 2 Teachers Way. The public hearing begins at 7 p.m. To speak at the hearing, call Russell Anderson at 410-545-8839 or 800-548-5026; or e-mail randerson2@sha.state.md.us. Leave your name, address, contact information and specify the Gaithersburg hearing.

The Montgomery County Planning Board's fourth work session on the blueprint for turning a 900-acre area in Shady Grove into a live-work "Science City" is set for June 11.