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This discussion has trailed off the "Science City" topic but perhaps I should give you some information about this project for future discussions.

Johns Hopkins bought the 138 acre Belward Farm from Elizabeth Banks with deed restrictions for $5 million. Mrs. Banks passed away so they are now free to build on the land which is one of the most beautiful pieces of property in Montgomery County. Mrs. Banks spent her life pampering, maintaining and preserving this 100 year old farm, the Victorian home and the barns. She expected JHU to continue the legacy by making the farm something special. Instead, they have chosen to treat it as a vacant lot with a few buildings which they will work around.

Rather than using the farmstead as a focal point and designing the research campus in harmony with the contour of the land and the angles and curves of the farmstead, they hope to replicate the high rise buildings of the Biopolis in Singapore. The neighbors who have lived with the beauty of this farm are outraged because JHU will destroy the farm while packing 17,000 people on a 100 acre site.

Even with the CCT the area roads will be gridlocked. The CCT, if built, will run from the Shady Grove metro in a meandering path to Germantown and is only expected to carry 15% of the workforce.

The "Science City", which includes the Life Sciences Center and the Public Services Training Academy property as well as Belward Farm, is being proposed by the Planning Board to accommodate 60,000 new jobs and 5,000 high density housing units...on roads that are at present maxed out. The study area is less than one square mile in an area that is completely auto dependent because it is surrounded by established residential suburban communities...subdivisions with cul de sacs and limited entrances and exits.

by Donna Baron on Feb 9, 2009 11:54 am • link • report