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 (pictured below), BioReliance, and the J. Craig Venter Institute are all located in the Life Sciences Center.
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 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.
NEW Planners scheduled a series of community meetings to gain public input.
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 more 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, 100-acre site owned by Johns Hopkins University (JHU)
- Recommend relocation of the Public Service 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
Planners are developing land use alternatives and analyzing density, transportation capacity, environmental features, the open space network, and future school needs as part of its work to develop preliminary recommendations for the draft Master Plan.
- October - December 2008: Community meetings
- January 15, 2009: Draft Plan to the Planning Board to set Public Hearing Date
Community meetings
To share your thoughts on the future of Gaithersburg West and to keep abreast of the discussions as we develop a new Master Plan, we invite residents, business owners and anyone interested to attend our forums:
- Wednesday, October 29, 7-9 p.m. - presentation (iPaper)
- Thursday, November 6, 7-9 p.m. - agenda (iPaper)
- Wednesday, November 12, 7-9 p.m. - presentation (iPaper), comments from break-out groups (iPaper)
- Tuesday, December 2, 7-9 p.m.
Download the meeting flyer (iPaper) and the master plan area map (iPaper). All meetings will take place at:
M-NCPPC
Shady Grove Training Facility
16641 Crabbs Branch Way
Rockville, MD 20850
Information from Past Meetings
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 the State Highway Administration'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 development of 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 Germantown with the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway – provide opportunities for vibrant, compact, walkable communities.
M-NCPPC Staff Contact
Nancy Sturgeon
301-495-1308
Nancy.Sturgeon@mncppc-mc.org
Date of last update: November 25, 2008
