Plans in progress for "Science City" at satellite campus

By: Alex Liu

Posted: 12/4/08

Plans for a proposed new "Science City" at the Hopkins satellite campus in Gaithersburg, Md. are under development by members of local government, universities and biotech companies in an effort to expand on the region's bioinformatics research.

The science vision, dubbed Vision 2030 (since it is expected to be realized by 2030), intends to encourage collaboration between federal agencies, academic research and industry.

Federal agencies like the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Food and Drug Administration would be situated within a part of the 700 acres that would also include the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and private companies.

By putting the development, testing and manufacturing stages of development together, this vision seeks to streamline the bioinformatics sector of research in Montgomery County.

"What is critical is the ability to advance both the pace of discovery and the commerce of those discoveries through more collaborative interdisciplinary research across the federal lab biotech industry and education sectors," David McDonough, the senior director of development oversight for Johns Hopkins real estate, said.

"These things do not happen overnight, so we're looking at a 20-year plan to bring together scientists from federal labs, Hopkins and other schools and private companies in order to come up with a land use plan that supports our science vision."

Such an extensive plan requires extensive cooperation among local government officials as well. The plan has gained local support, including support from Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett.

"We think it's an important piece of the life science strategy and we are very supportive of a master plan amendment to further grow our life sciences industry," Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Schwartz Jones said of the proposed amendment. "It's a key element of the Montgomery County economic development strategy. There are lots of higher paying jobs in the biosciences industry; it's very science based and very research tech based and [now] it can be manufacturing based."

According to Jones, a handful of different development scenarios are being considered - there are high, medium and low-density development plans. The Montgomery County Planning Board plans to make recommendations, with the County Council making the final decision on the proposed plans.

The plan seeks to organize the development of the Montgomery county area, which already includes the Hopkins Belward Campus, the Universities of Shady Grove and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital.

"We're presenting the concept of what it's like when more scientists move in," Elaine Amir, director of the Hopkins Montgomery County Campus, said. "We're going to build it as it seems appropriate so people will have a place to live, work, be entertained and have a really integrated community."

One of the major differences, according to Amir, is that this proposed plan will bring a method to the madness.

With collaboration, developers can plan the area as a whole instead of by parts, as would be done if the schools, hospitals and biotech companies had developed the land independently. "This [plan] is bringing the whole area together and looking at the whole picture so we won't replicate things and will build things that fit together," Amir said. "We're looking at more reasoned planning and more collaborative planning so that we build something that looks as if it were planned. Our objective is to capture the creative class. We want people to come here."

Public facility regulations would also be imposed. The plans would need to consider mass transit and infrastructure as a priority. According to Amir, water supply, air quality, green space and traffic are all considerations in the process. These factors are to be considered by the Planning Board and the Montgomery County Department of Parks and Planning during the whole process.

Some differences in opinion also have yet to be resolved.

"People agree [on the] need [for] development controls to make sure the pace of development is matched by supporting infrastructure," McDonough said. "The only area where I think we don't have a common vision is the level of density."

Despite the extensive work ahead, the plan is still in progress. According to McDonough, the county planning agencies will release a new master plan report in late spring.

This plan will go to the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the county executive in Montgomery County and finally to County Council, where it will be deliberated upon and possibly approved by the fourth quarter of 2009.

"Specifically, we have a coalition in Montgomery County about how we can advance education, research, healthcare and commercial of bioscience research," McDonough said. "Nationally, to figure out how we can accelerate the pace of discovery in health care and then we think you need to have ambitious goals. We are hoping to eliminate disease by the end of the 21st century."