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More than 50 boosters and critics of the Gaithersburg West master plan laid out their best cases to the Planning Board for adding to or taming the scope of the county's blueprint to transform more than 800 acres in Shady Grove into a live-work science and research hub.

For more than a year, the vision to turn the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center into a "Science City" of more than 20 million square feet of research, commercial and retail space, 60,000 jobs and 8,000 residences has spurred the backing of the business community and sparked dire premonitions of traffic and congestion from neighbors. Thursday night's hearing will be the only hearing on Gaithersburg West until it goes to the County Council in the fall.

Leaders of the business and biotech community, university officials, students and some neighbors to the area lent their support for a Gaithersburg West that would maximize a vision driven largely by Johns Hopkins University, which owns more than 130 acres in the area. Speaking in a global context, they lamented that the Life Sciences Center — the nation's third largest cluster of biotech — has not met its potential.

Several called it an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make Montgomery County home to some of the leading scientific advances in the world, and bring here a highly educated workforce, millions of dollars into the tax base and keep the county's brightest students from flocking to more vibrant communities.

"I can't imagine a better future for our county," said Richard Zakour, executive director of MDBio, a division of the Tech Council of Maryland.

Civic and environmental groups in opposition stressed that they are not against the growth of biotech but that it must come within reason, especially not the 110-foot high-rises and 14,000 people proposed at the Belward Farm.

"[T]here are many aspects of the Gaithersburg West master plan creating the Science City that make little sense to us," said Donna Baron of the Gaithersburg-North Potomac-Rockville Coalition, a group of more than 200 neighbors. "The density proposed for the farm, one of the most beautiful pieces of property in the county, will be on par with city blocks near Metro downtown and make it look like Rosslyn."

Rosslyn, Va., in Arlington County, is noted for its many skyscrapers in a dense business section; county officials there characterize it as an "urban village."

Residents for Reasonable Development, a group made up largely of neighbors to Belward, has proposed an alternative that would shift the density east and allow Hopkins to boost density on its existing campus or to sell to others.

Under that scenario, the 107-acre farm would be a research campus that RRD member and Mission Hills resident Jan Fine sees as more akin to a "JHU Belward Preserve."

"RRD and I believe that there is a unique and viable way to build this campus, preserve the farmstead, and allow for the creation of something truly precedent-setting," she said.

Because so many people testified, Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson asked that the commissioners not ask questions.

The record will stay open until April 10. The board's first work session is April 23. Gaithersburg West would go to County Executive Isiah Leggett for comments before reaching the County Council for final approval. That decision is expected in the fall.