Montgomery set to buy sludge site for $10 million

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007

Montgomery set to buy sludge site for $10 million

Business park, tech center are planned for location

by Janel Davis and Margie Hyslop | Staff Writers

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Plans for a sludge composting facility to become a business incubator are moving forward with a decision for Montgomery County to buy the 115-acre parcel near Calverton for $10 million.

The Montgomery and Prince George’s county executives agreed on a $10 million price last week.

Since 2002, the county has been making plans to redevelop the site near the county line to support new manufacturing businesses and laboratories.

The plan has been delayed as Montgomery has been unable to agree on a price with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which owns the site.

A WSSC appraisal valued the site at $14 million, but Montgomery County set the value at $8.5 million.

The final decision to sell rests with the six WSSC commissioners, who are appointed, three each, by the two county executives.

Some Prince George’s commissioners have balked at the price, contending that Montgomery should pay more.

Sale of the land is on the water and sewer utility board’s agenda today.

‘‘The [WSSC] works best for its customers when the two counties who run the agency ... join hands and work together for the common interest,” Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said in a joint statement.

‘‘The purpose ... is to show that the county executives are unified,” said John Erzen, a Prince George’s County spokesman.

Montgomery County Council President Marilyn J. Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton applauded the agreement that would allow the redevelopment project, known in planning documents as the East County Science and Technology Center.

‘‘I am pleased that the [WSSC] will approve the sale.... Developing the East County Science and Technology Center at that location will bring dynamic new technology companies to the East County and make it a magnet for other businesses and residents,” Praisner said in a statement.

The site was closed in 1999 after years of complaints from nearby residents and businesses about odors from sludge processing there.

Preliminary plans for the center include 800,000 square feet of laboratory, office and manufacturing space designed to meet needs of the biotechnology industry, as well as facilities that could support college classes and a telecommuter center.