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A farmhouse dating to 1877 could complicate development plans on a parcel in Gaithersburg.

The Victorian farmhouse — known as 206 S. Frederick Ave. in tax records and 9 DeSellum Ave. to neighbors — is slated for demolition to make way for a medical office building.

City leaders introduced concept plans and rezoning for the project last month without seeing the property's Maryland Historical Trust documents. The city's Historic Preservation Advisory Committee will meet Thursday to make a recommendation on whether the farmhouse meets city criteria for historical significance.

If HPAC recommends historic designation, public hearings will ensue before the mayor and council, who serve as the city's Historic District Commission and will make a final decision on designation.

Historic designation does not prevent demolition. A historically designated building can be demolished in rare instances of economic hardship.

Historians have suggested that the building could be moved, said Gaithersburg Planning and Code Enforcement Director Greg Ossont.

City leaders approved moving forward with public hearings on rezoning of two residential lots so that Dr. Robert Wilson Jr., a city dentist, could build a 20,000 square foot medical office complex and parking on five lots totaling 2.7 acres owned by his father, Dr. Robert Wilson Sr.

According to plans, Wilson Jr. wants to tear down the 1877 farmhouse. He will renovate the Fulks House, a historic Queen Anne Victorian home built in 1905, and a house at 13 DeSellum Ave., now under HPAC review for historic designation.

"If they recommend designation for 206 S. Frederick Ave., it would pretty much kill the entire plan," Wilson Jr. said. "There's no way that both could happen because the house and office needs to go to make room for the new buildings and specifically for parking."

Wilson Jr. said if someone "has an area they'd like to move [the farmhouse] to, I'd be very happy with that."

City Councilwoman Cathy Drzyzgula was the sole vote against closing the record on rezoning and concept plans and requested a longer public comment period. Drzyzgula, a former HPAC member, criticized the city's planning process, which allows rezoning and site plan approval before HPAC has had a site visit and review.

Gaithersburg has had parallel concept plan approval and historic designation processes for more than 20 years, said Ossont.

The farmhouse once belonged to Dr. Lee Davis Lodge, an internationally known lecturer, author and literary critic, said Judith Christensen, president of the Gaithersburg Historical Association.

The city hired Christensen in the 1990s to complete an inventory form on the farmhouse used by the Maryland Historical Trust to track historic properties, then lost the document, she said. They hired her to do another, which she provided to city officials before the April 6 public hearings, she said. City officials did not mention the farmhouse's provenance at public hearings because the city's zoning and concept plan processes are separate from the historic preservation processes, Ossont said.