Science YES.org
Citizens for Science at Shady Grove
Citizens for Science at Shady Grove
FAQs
The Gaithersburg West Master Plan
Question 1: What is this all about?
Answer:
• The Gaithersburg West Master Plan would transform an already-developed commercial area in the heart of Montgomery County’s I-270 technology corridor into a more vibrant, walkable, transit-oriented, “live-work-learn” community -- a new ‘Main Street’ for the bioscience industry in Montgomery County. The plan would add good, high paying jobs in healthcare, education and bioscience in an area of the County that
already has the infrastructure to support them – the area around the existing Shady Grove Life Sciences Center (which includes Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Human Genome Sciences, Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, the University of Maryland Universities at Shady Grove, and other nearby commercial properties).
• This plan for a new Shady Grove Science Center is a key element of County Executive Leggett’s smart growth initiative. It has been endorsed by a broad and diverse cross-section of our community, including leading smart-growth experts, the Tech Council of Maryland, leading universities, and the Montgomery County Planning Board, and it will be coming to the Montgomery County Council for a vote in a few weeks as part of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan.
• This new plan also includes major new transit improvements – with a new light rail line, the Corridor Cities Transitway – that would extend from Shady Grove all the way to Clarksburg. Four new transit stations are proposed within the master plan area, to connect this new ‘main street’ directly to places like Shady Grove Metro, King Farm, Crown Farm, Metropolitan Grove MARC Station, Germantown Town Center and Clarksburg – without having to drive.
Question 2: What does this Plan Mean to Me?
Answer:
• The plan would create 38,000 new jobs, mostly in bioscience and healthcare, and add up to $1 billion a year in new net revenue to the County to help pay for schools and other needs. That’s a lot of opportunity for the next generation.
• It would create a more vibrant center where scientists, business owners and residents could interact, with more public parks, recreation and open space, new street cafes and other retail to help bring the area alive, improving quality of life, providing easy access to shopping and entertainment, and raising surrounding property values for nearby residents.
• The Gaithersburg West Master Plan includes a new system of parks and open spaces, with a new multi-use trail system, connecting new and existing green spaces together with the new transit stations, to make the new Shady Grove Science Center far more walkable, bikeable and liveable than what you see there today. New ball fields and other active recreation facilities are also planned, including preservation of the historic Belward Farm which will be open for the first time for community enjoyment.
Question 3: What benefits would this plan provide?
Answer:
• New Advances in science, to improve human health: Montgomery County is where the human genome was mapped. It is already home to the world’s leading experts in cancer research and many other fields. Great scientific advances are possible here, but this requires collaboration between government labs, universities, and private-sector entrepreneurs, and that is exactly the environment this plan is designed to foster.
• Great jobs in healthcare, education, bioscience and related fields, to get our economy moving again: This plan will provide for an additional 38,000 jobs, on top of the roughly 22,000 jobs already approved for this area today. These are the kinds of jobs that provide a future, the kinds of jobs any community would fight for.
• $43 million a year in new net revenue to Montgomery County to help grow our tax base so we can keep our schools strong, and the tax burden on our residents low.
• More parks, recreation and open space to improve health, protect our environment, and improve our quality of life. The new plan has far less impervious surface than you see there today. Much of this area is now covered with surface parking lots – but these will be replaced with new walkable streets, with a mix of jobs, retail shops, and nearby homes, all within a five-minute walk of four new transit stations.
• A great place to live, work and learn: Two great universities, a state-of-the-art hospital, numerous federal and private-sector medical research labs, as part of a vibrant, sustainable, transit-oriented community. That is what this plan provides.
Question 4: Some People have said, They Don’t Want all these Jobs Here, the Plan should be Scaled Back, What’s Wrong with That Idea?
Answer:
• We’re either going to be a world-class center for science and technology, or we’re not. It’s that simple. This vote is a real test of who is serious about smart growth and job creation -- and who is not. Right now, Montgomery County needs jobs (our county has already lost 14,000 jobs since 2008 and unemployment has doubled).
• The rest of the world is investing in cutting-edge research and technology parks like this where people can live and work in a healthy, vibrant, sustainable environment. This is the future, and we should be leading the way. The current area around the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center was cutting edge 20 years ago, but today it does not provide the kind of attractive, sustainable, live-work-learn community we need. Scaling back the plan would take away any chance for redevelopment, leaving the area pretty much as it is today – and costing our community jobs and investment that we need here.
• With extensive community input, received through dozens of meetings over the past two or more years, this plan has already been scaled back from what was first proposed. Important protections have already been added for surrounding residential communities, including: The 2 million square feet of commercial space already removed from the plan by the planning Board; The tough new “staging provisions” that mean NO new development (above what is already approved under the old plan) can move forward until major transportation improvements like the new Corridor Cities Transitway are provided first; Wider buffer areas and stepped-back building heights to ensure a smooth transition from the surrounding neighborhoods. In short, there is no need to make further changes -- which could undermine the economics of the entire plan -- because the immediate neighbors’ concerns have already been addressed.
• Both the Planning Board and County Council staff have examined the plan in detail, and have concluded that the new transportation and school facilities planned for this area will be more than adequate to meet our needs and improve quality-of-life, now and in the future.
• ‘Scale-it-back’ is the voice of the past. We need to listen to the voices of the future. The next generation in our community needs the kind of opportunities this plan provides. Many of us, including a broad range of groups supporting this plan, care very deeply about creating jobs and opportunity for our children, and we want our Council representatives to support this plan as is. Why scale back jobs? Why scale back transit? Why scale back opportunity for our children, or investments in research, or education, or our future prosperity? Who does THAT benefit? (aside from the few who already have all they need). This plan is about our economic future and it has already been scaled back quite enough, thank you.
For more information:
Question 1: What is this all about?
Answer:
• The Gaithersburg West Master Plan would transform an already-developed commercial area in the heart of Montgomery County’s I-270 technology corridor into a more vibrant, walkable, transit-oriented, “live-work-learn” community -- a new ‘Main Street’ for the bioscience industry in Montgomery County. The plan would add good, high paying jobs in healthcare, education and bioscience in an area of the County that
already has the infrastructure to support them – the area around the existing Shady Grove Life Sciences Center (which includes Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Human Genome Sciences, Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County Campus, the University of Maryland Universities at Shady Grove, and other nearby commercial properties). • This plan for a new Shady Grove Science Center is a key element of County Executive Leggett’s smart growth initiative. It has been endorsed by a broad and diverse cross-section of our community, including leading smart-growth experts, the Tech Council of Maryland, leading universities, and the Montgomery County Planning Board, and it will be coming to the Montgomery County Council for a vote in a few weeks as part of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan.
• This new plan also includes major new transit improvements – with a new light rail line, the Corridor Cities Transitway – that would extend from Shady Grove all the way to Clarksburg. Four new transit stations are proposed within the master plan area, to connect this new ‘main street’ directly to places like Shady Grove Metro, King Farm, Crown Farm, Metropolitan Grove MARC Station, Germantown Town Center and Clarksburg – without having to drive.
Question 2: What does this Plan Mean to Me?
Answer:
• The plan would create 38,000 new jobs, mostly in bioscience and healthcare, and add up to $1 billion a year in new net revenue to the County to help pay for schools and other needs. That’s a lot of opportunity for the next generation.
• It would create a more vibrant center where scientists, business owners and residents could interact, with more public parks, recreation and open space, new street cafes and other retail to help bring the area alive, improving quality of life, providing easy access to shopping and entertainment, and raising surrounding property values for nearby residents.
• The Gaithersburg West Master Plan includes a new system of parks and open spaces, with a new multi-use trail system, connecting new and existing green spaces together with the new transit stations, to make the new Shady Grove Science Center far more walkable, bikeable and liveable than what you see there today. New ball fields and other active recreation facilities are also planned, including preservation of the historic Belward Farm which will be open for the first time for community enjoyment.
Question 3: What benefits would this plan provide?
Answer:
• New Advances in science, to improve human health: Montgomery County is where the human genome was mapped. It is already home to the world’s leading experts in cancer research and many other fields. Great scientific advances are possible here, but this requires collaboration between government labs, universities, and private-sector entrepreneurs, and that is exactly the environment this plan is designed to foster.
• Great jobs in healthcare, education, bioscience and related fields, to get our economy moving again: This plan will provide for an additional 38,000 jobs, on top of the roughly 22,000 jobs already approved for this area today. These are the kinds of jobs that provide a future, the kinds of jobs any community would fight for.
• $43 million a year in new net revenue to Montgomery County to help grow our tax base so we can keep our schools strong, and the tax burden on our residents low.
• More parks, recreation and open space to improve health, protect our environment, and improve our quality of life. The new plan has far less impervious surface than you see there today. Much of this area is now covered with surface parking lots – but these will be replaced with new walkable streets, with a mix of jobs, retail shops, and nearby homes, all within a five-minute walk of four new transit stations.
• A great place to live, work and learn: Two great universities, a state-of-the-art hospital, numerous federal and private-sector medical research labs, as part of a vibrant, sustainable, transit-oriented community. That is what this plan provides.
Question 4: Some People have said, They Don’t Want all these Jobs Here, the Plan should be Scaled Back, What’s Wrong with That Idea?
Answer:
• We’re either going to be a world-class center for science and technology, or we’re not. It’s that simple. This vote is a real test of who is serious about smart growth and job creation -- and who is not. Right now, Montgomery County needs jobs (our county has already lost 14,000 jobs since 2008 and unemployment has doubled).
• The rest of the world is investing in cutting-edge research and technology parks like this where people can live and work in a healthy, vibrant, sustainable environment. This is the future, and we should be leading the way. The current area around the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center was cutting edge 20 years ago, but today it does not provide the kind of attractive, sustainable, live-work-learn community we need. Scaling back the plan would take away any chance for redevelopment, leaving the area pretty much as it is today – and costing our community jobs and investment that we need here.
• With extensive community input, received through dozens of meetings over the past two or more years, this plan has already been scaled back from what was first proposed. Important protections have already been added for surrounding residential communities, including: The 2 million square feet of commercial space already removed from the plan by the planning Board; The tough new “staging provisions” that mean NO new development (above what is already approved under the old plan) can move forward until major transportation improvements like the new Corridor Cities Transitway are provided first; Wider buffer areas and stepped-back building heights to ensure a smooth transition from the surrounding neighborhoods. In short, there is no need to make further changes -- which could undermine the economics of the entire plan -- because the immediate neighbors’ concerns have already been addressed.
• Both the Planning Board and County Council staff have examined the plan in detail, and have concluded that the new transportation and school facilities planned for this area will be more than adequate to meet our needs and improve quality-of-life, now and in the future.
• ‘Scale-it-back’ is the voice of the past. We need to listen to the voices of the future. The next generation in our community needs the kind of opportunities this plan provides. Many of us, including a broad range of groups supporting this plan, care very deeply about creating jobs and opportunity for our children, and we want our Council representatives to support this plan as is. Why scale back jobs? Why scale back transit? Why scale back opportunity for our children, or investments in research, or education, or our future prosperity? Who does THAT benefit? (aside from the few who already have all they need). This plan is about our economic future and it has already been scaled back quite enough, thank you.
For more information:
- What the New Plan would Look Like: What Does the Shady Grove Science Center mean to me
- Staff report on the Gaithersburg West Master Plan for Feb 1, 2010, PHED Committee Session
- "No Pentagon Here" Fact Sheet
- Spanish Flyer
- Voices in the Community Support Science Center