The “Science City”: Real-Life Comparisons
Much has been said about the massive size of the development proposed by the Gaithersburg West Master
Plan. The residents are horrified yet many of the County Council members remain unmoved.
Perhaps some comparisons will confirm that the development proposed by the master plan is not only
out-sized but is actually impossible. Please consider:
 The Pentagon has 6.6 million square feet of gross floor space on 583 acres and a very complex
transportation system.
 Belward Farm is a pre-Civil War farm that is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, is only
one-fifth the size of the Pentagon property and is adjacent to three residential neighborhoods.
 With the proposed 4.6 million square feet of floor space on 107 acres, Belward Farm would have three
and a half times as many people per acre as the Pentagon.
 If Johns Hopkins Real Estate is successful in securing the requested 6.5 million square feet of space,
the development on Belward Farm would be almost the size of the Pentagon.
 The proposed “Science City” will have 20 million square feet of commercial space and 9 million square
feet of residential space on 922 acres. At 29 million square feet, it would be the size of 4.4 Pentagons
on property that is only one and a half times as large.
The thought of seeing four and a half Pentagons between Shady Grove Road and Muddy Branch Road is
shocking. This massive development would be in the middle of a suburban area with five main roads, very few
through streets and would be five miles from a Metro Station.
If the County attempted to build the transportation accommodations for four and a half Pentagons, the following
would be required:
 9 Metro Lines
 106 bus bays for 370 bus routes
 13 highways and major thoroughfares with 18 exits for the “Science City”
 A 105-acre parking lot for 28,400 cars
 At least four heliports
 And the Air Park would need a MAJOR overhaul.
Obviously Montgomery County could not replicate the transportation options found around one Pentagon,
much less four and a half Pentagons.
If the Gaithersburg West Master Plan is not approved as proposed there are still options for the expansion of
the Life Sciences Center and Belward Farm. We are not saying “Don’t build”. We are simply advocating that
the development be scaled back to be compatible with the surrounding communities.
The current 1990 master plan allows for enough expansion to create 17,000 additional jobs and 500 additional
homes in the “Science City”. The Coalition is supportive of the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and would be
amenable to a moderate increase in density in order to accommodate their expansion.
On the other hand, Johns Hopkins entered into an agreement with Belward Farm’s late owner, Elizabeth
Banks, and her family to build a minimally intrusive medical or academic campus with 1.2 million square feet of
space. That is more than adequate for an academic research campus. For example:
 The world renowned Scripps Research Center in La Jolla, CA has 1 million square feet.
 The Genzyme Research Laboratories in Boston, the Merck Research Laboratories in Cambridge, and
the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge could all be built on Belward Farm with
space left over.
 The Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island is described as a
“140,000 square-foot facility [that] houses modern teaching laboratories, cutting edge research
laboratories, high-tech facilities for DNA sequencing and analysis, faculty offices, a 100-seat classroom,
and a two-story, 300-seat auditorium, all to meet the needs of URI's growing environmental
biotechnology, life and health sciences programs." 1.2 million square feet would be sufficient to build
eight and a half of these facilities on Belward Farm.

If the Johns Hopkins academic campus was moved to Belward Farm, seventeen buildings,
approximately the size of the buildings on their present campus, could be built on the farm.
The scale of the development proposed by the Gaithersburg West Master Plan is outrageous and there is no
possible way to accommodate a development the size of four and a half Pentagons between Shady Grove
Road and Muddy Branch Road. The Gaithersburg West area will never be urban like Bethesda or Arlington,
but with a sensible approach to the future development of the Life Sciences Center and Belward Farm, the
expansion plans for the hospital and the biotechs can be accommodated.
For additional information on the Science City – Pentagon comparisons please see www.scale-it-back.com .
Donna Baron
Coordinator
The Gaithersburg - North Potomac - Rockville Coalition
www.scale-it-back.com