Gaithersburg West
Planners are working on a 21st-century blueprint for the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center. Originally conceived as a medical center complex in the 1970s and expanded into a Life Sciences Center in the 1980s, the County’s vision for the area has largely been achieved.
Now home to a major hospital, academic institutions, and private biotechnology companies, the Life Sciences Center serves as the County’s premier location for and has the largest concentration of advanced technology companies. Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Johns Hopkins University-Montgomery County Campus, the Universities at Shady Grove, and biotechnology companies such as Human Genome Sciences, BioReliance, and the J. Craig Venter Institute are all located in the Life Sciences Center.
Project status
In November 2009, the Council's review of the Master Plan was put on hold; it will resume with the PHED Committee in early 2010. See Project Schedule below for updates.
Planning Board draft plan and appendix
View the Planning Board draft of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan(10.6 MB).
The Gaithersburg West Master Plan will update the 1990 Shady Grove Study Area Master Plan and portions of the 1985 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan. In addition to the Life Sciences Center, the Gaithersburg West Master Plan includes the areas west of Quince Orchard and Longdraft roads, as well as several enclaves -- geographic islands within the County’s jurisdiction but surrounded by a municipality. Enclaves include the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Londonderry/Hoyle’s Addition, Oakmont, Rosemont, Washingtonian residential and the Washingtonian light industrial park. View a map of the planning area.
The City of Gaithersburg is an incorporated municipality with its own planning and zoning authority and its own Master Plan. Planners from both jurisdictions are coordinating on issues where the planning areas meet.
View the Appendix or the individual chapters listed below.
- Appendix 1: Background
Summary of the area’s planning history, relevant County and State policies, municipal annexations, and its development as a science center - Appendix 2: Demographic Profile
Analysis of population and housing trends along with population and housing demographic characteristics - Appendix 3: School Capacity Analysis
Effect of the Plan’s proposed development on elementary, middle, and high school capacity - Appendix 4: Parks and Open Space
Assessment of existing and proposed park facilities to serve current and future residents - Appendix 5: Environmental Resources Analysis
Examination of the area’s watersheds, water quality, imperviousness, forest cover, air quality, carbon emissions, open space system, and water and sewer service - Appendix 6: Historic Preservation Program
Sites within the Plan area—Clopper Mill Ruins, Belward Farm, St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, England-Crown Farm, Humpback/Deer Park Bridge, and other sites adjacent to it - Appendix 7: Transportation Analysis
Supporting analysis for Plan recommendations for travel demand management, the Corridor Cities Transitway, and the street network, as well as measures of land use and transportation balance - Appendix 8: Life Science Center Zone
Text of the Montgomery County Zoning Ordinance, 7/16/09 - Appendix 9: Montgomery County Biotechnology Potentials
Partners for Economic Solutions’ report examining how the Plan’s proposal for mixed-uses would affect the County’s ability to compete for additional biosciences development
The challenge
For all its success, today’s Shady Grove Life Sciences Center is a sprawling, single-use, auto-oriented area. The LSC of the 21st Century should be vibrant, dynamic, and walkable with a physical form that is as inspiring as the discoveries that are going on inside the labs and classrooms throughout the area.
Human Genome Sciences building.- Plan for science and the future growth of the Life Sciences Center
- Provide a blueprint for the Belward property, the vacant, 107-acre site owned by Johns Hopkins University (JHU)
- Recommend relocation of the Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) and reuse of this prime site within the LSC with uses that are compatible with and supportive of a premier science center
- Introduce more uses within the LSC to create a vibrant, dynamic, walkable place
- Recommend realignment and new station locations for the Corridor Cities Transitway to place the transit where redevelopment and new development is planned
- Provide general, area-wide recommendations for the enclaves and areas outside the LSC, where the Plan will recommend minimal changes.
Meetings and information
Project schedule
- July 16, 2009: The Planning Board approved its draft of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan
- July 31, 2009: Planning staff transmitted the Planning Board draft to the County Council and County Executive
- September 15 and 17, 2009: County Council public hearing
- County Council Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee Meetings:
- September 29 | Council Staff Report | Planning Staff Presentation
- October 5 | Council Staff Report (LSC zone)
- October 12 | Council Staff Report | Planning Staff Presentation
- October 26 | Council Staff Report | Planning Staff Presentation
- October 29 | Council Staff Report (LSC Zone from Council Staff report, Oct 26) | Planning Staff Presentation
- November 9 | Council Staff Report (LSC zone)
- Tentative 2010 PHED Committee meetings:
- January 25
- February 1
- February 8
Information from past meetings
2009 Planning Board worksessions
- June 11: Economic analysis, implementation and staging
- May 28: LSC districts, LSC zone, environment
- May 18: LSC districts
- May 14: CCT, LSC Districts, LSC zone, LSC design guidelines
- April 23: Transportation
- Thursday, March 26: Public Hearing before the Planning Board
Staff presentation
Public hearing testimony (20 MB) - Thursday, February 12:
Planners took the preliminary draftof the Gaithersburg West Master Plan to the Planning Board.
Staff presentation (1.8MB) summarizing the draft plan
Community meetings
A series of community meetings were held to gain public input. The presentations and feedback follow.
- March 18, 2009: Presentation
- December 2, 2008: Presentation and comments from break-out groups
- November 12, 2008: Presentation and comments from break-out groups
- November 6, 2008: Agenda
- October 29, 2008: Presentation
October 2, 2008 Status Report to the Planning Board
Staff report, attachments
Presentation
Recording (Item 4)
February 28, 2008 Status Report to the Planning Board
Staff report
Presentation
Recording (Item 7)
Why "Gaithersburg West?"
The issues, land uses, and stages of development in the western portion of Gaithersburg are different from the eastern area. Later, the Planning Department will work on updating other portions of the 1985 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan not covered by the Gaithersburg West Plan. The future Gaithersburg East Master Plan will be coordinated with Montgomery County Department of Transportation's study of the Mid-County Corridor highway and will include Montgomery Village, the Airpark, and surrounding communities.
Shady Grove Life Sciences Center timeline
- 1971: The 1971 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan endorses the County proposal for a future Montgomery County Medical Center complex west of Shady Grove Road
- 1973: The Public Service Training Academy locates west of Great Seneca Highway
- 1976: County conveys land to the State for the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA) and the Noyes Institute (at Great Seneca Highway and Key West Avenue)
- 1979: Shady Grove Adventist Hospital opens
- 1984: County conveys land (south of Darnestown Road at Shady Grove Road) to the University of Maryland
- 1985: The 1985 Gaithersburg Vicinity Master Plan expands the Medical Center concept to a "Research and Development Village"
- 1986: County Council approves the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center Development Plan to guide development of the County-owned area
- 1986: County conveys land to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) for its Montgomery County Campus (at Key West Avenue and Medical Center Drive)
- 1987: Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) opens at the University of Maryland Shady Grove Campus
- 1989: Johns Hopkins University purchases the 138-acre Belward Farm
- 1990: The 1990 Shady Grove Study Area Master Plan expands the vision for the "Research & Development Village," retains sites in the Life Sciences Center for this purpose, and proposes mixed-use residential neighborhoods at the King Farm, Crown Farm, Thomas Farm, and Traville
- 1996: JHU receives Preliminary Plan approval for 1.8 million square feet of development on the Belward property
- 2000: The Universities at Shady Grove, an innovative program offering undergraduate and graduate degrees from eight Maryland public universities at Shady Grove campus, is created
- 2005: JHU begins to rethink their original plans for Belward
- 2007: The Planning Department initiates the Gaithersburg West Master Plan, focusing on the Life Sciences Center, and working in collaboration with JHU, Adventist Hospital, the Universities at Shady Grove, LSC property owners, and area citizens and residents.
The Master Plan process
Planners develop master and sector plans to create a framework for each community designed to last 15 to 20 years. Those visions help planners and policy-makers – such as the Planning Board and County Council – make policy and decide on proposed development. Each plan includes an inventory of land uses and an analysis of zoning, transportation, community facilities, environmental assets, and historic structures, among an inventory of land uses and an analysis of zoning, transportation, community facilities, environmental assets, and historic structures, among many other elements.
Created nearly 40 years ago, Montgomery County’s General Plan defined the land use concept "Wedges and Corridors,” a regional plan that envisioned growth corridors radiating from Washington, D.C., like the spokes of a wheel. In between each spoke, wedges of open space, farmland, and residential areas prevail. Areas served by transit – such as routing the Corridor Cities Transitway through the Life Sciences Center – provide opportunities for vibrant, compact, walkable communities.
M-NCPPC staff contact
Nancy Sturgeon
301-495-1308
Nancy.Sturgeon@mncppc-mc.org
Last update: January 20, 2010
Montgomery County Planning Department
8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910
www.montgomeryplanning.org
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