Another two months are expected to pass before the Montgomery County Council finalizes the blueprint for tripling commercial development, jobs and housing in 900 acres between Gaithersburg and Rockville.

The delay moves the vote nine months later than touted when the vision to turn the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center into a world-class "Science City" emerged more than two years ago.

Having trudged last fall through lengthy debates over traffic projections and zoning guidelines, councilmembers face a heavy workload before they can take up the controversial Gaithersburg West Master Plan, which lays a 40-year roadmap for boosting commercial space in and around the Life Sciences Center from 7 million to 20 million square feet, homes from 3,300 to nearly 9,000 and jobs from 20,000 to as many as 60,000.

The council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee will return to Gaithersburg West on Jan. 25, to be followed by at least one more session before heading to the full council in March or April, said Councilman Michael J. Knapp, PHED committee chairman.

Meanwhile, Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown and other county leaders have yet to secure a Memorandum of Understanding with Johns Hopkins University that would help document a clearer picture of what Hopkins wants to do at its Belward Farm in Gaithersburg — and more broadly, what the research giant's long-term commitment is to Montgomery County.

Knapp's first MOU proposal went to Hopkins more than two months ago. The county and Hopkins have been going back and forth since.

"You've got two big organizations trying to figure out how each other works, and even how themselves work," said Knapp, a former biotech consultant. "On the really good side, we both want the same thing. The challenge is: How do we say it in a way that we can all agree on?"

Despite the drawn-out negotiations, Hopkins and county officials are optimistic that recent meetings have advanced the discussion.

Knapp hopes to settle the MOU "this week or next."

"We expect to have a signed agreement soon," said Elaine Amir, executive director of Hopkins's Montgomery County campus.

Hopkins has been a driving force behind a more expansive vision for Gaithersburg West, putting them at odds with a coalition of environmental activists and residents in Gaithersburg, Rockville and North Potomac. Debate has raged over how much development to lay out in the master plan, especially the burden it will put on roads and neighborhoods — despite a proposed mass transit line that would carry roughly 30,000 riders daily between the Shady Grove Metro station and the Comsat building near Clarksburg.

A lack of specifics has been one of the main gripes from residents since business and political leaders started talking about their "Vision 2030" for the future of the county's life sciences sector. That vision is largely anchored around Belward's transformation from a bucolic, rolling 107 acres to a cutting-edge research campus for 15,000 workers.

Under the version of Gaithersburg West that the County Planning Board approved in July, the farm would see more than 4 million square feet of development. Hopkins wants nearly 7 million square feet, saying that the higher density is needed to lure federal research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health. Civic groups that have rallied around their opposition to the so-called "Science City" say that the proper amount of development on Belward should be closer to 2 million square feet.