The deed of transfer that Johns Hopkins University inked when it bought the Belward Farm 20 years ago could stymie one of the essential cogs in a vision to transform more than 900 acres between Gaithersburg and Rockville into a cutting-edge biotech "urban village."

The 108-acre farm, at Darnestown and Muddy Branch roads, is the only large swath of open land eyed for development in the draft of the Gaithersburg West Master Plan, the county's blueprint for tripling construction, jobs and housing in and around the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center.

At issue is the agreement that Elizabeth Banks and her family struck with Hopkins in 1989. The family says it was meant to prevent overdevelopment on the bucolic plot, which was a working farm until Banks's death in 2005. They point to a 1996 plan that laid out 1.4 million square feet of research and office space under a "Floor Area Ratio" of .3, which would mean that built floor space would be equal to 30 percent the size of farm.

Hopkins counters that the deed restricts only the kinds of development, not the amount, and says development on Belward needs to increase four-fold over the 1996 plan in order to attract federal research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. Hopkins's preferred 1.25 ratio would allow 5.8 million square feet of construction on Belward.

The County Planning Board's draft of Gaithersburg West, released this summer and being mulled by the County Council, settles on a ratio of 1.0, which would yield as much as 4.5 million square feet of construction in buildings up to 150 feet high.

For two years, Hopkins officials and the Banks family tried to come to a consensus, but the talks broke down about four months ago, said Tim Newell, Elizabeth Banks's nephew. If the County Council approves Gaithersburg West that would allow more development on Belward than the 1996 plan, the family will consult with lawyers on whether to sue.

"The family is firmly committed to a resolution that would honor what my aunt, my mother and my uncle had intended," Newell said. "If it proceeds beyond the .3 FAR, we will take action. We would not sit back if that were to happen."

The 1989 deed limits any development on Belward to "agricultural, academic, research and development, delivery of health and medical care and services, or related purposes only, which uses may specifically include but not be limited to the development of a research campus in affiliation with one or more of the divisions of [Hopkins]."

Hopkins officials say that the vision for Belward laid out in Gaithersburg West "are fully compliant with the deed."

"The relevant restrictions in the deed between Johns Hopkins University and the Banks family only address use. They do not address density, height, or architectural design," David McDonough, senior director of development oversight for Johns Hopkins Real Estate, wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette.

When wrapping up its draft of Gaithersburg West in July, the planning board thought it best to let the courts to decide any questions over the deed. The County Council may not have that luxury as it heads towards its decision later this year, said President Philip M. Andrews.

"That could have a huge impact on what happens," he said. "… We have to have a good understanding of what is allowed under the deed."

Roots of change

Listed as a historic resource, Belward Farm traces back in Newell's family to his great-grandfather, Ignatius Beall Banks who bought it in 1873. Siblings Elizabeth, Beulah and Roland — Newell's aunt, mother and uncle — were the third generation on the farm. The family couldn't afford to keep the farm after the widening of Darnestown Road increased the property's value and its tax assessment in the 1980s.

Offers from commercial and housing developers came in as high as $54 million, Newell said, but the family sold to Hopkins for the "gift price" of $5 million. Beulah Banks Newell, who lives in Pennsylvania, and Roland Banks, who died in April, each had a one-sixth share of the property. The deal with Hopkins allowed Elizabeth Banks, who held a two-thirds share, to live on the farm until her death in 2005.

Hopkins's most recent ideas set about one-quarter of the development for the university, while the rest would be used for other entities, ideally a federal research agency.

The family sees that more as a commercial, not academic, venture — "exactly the sort of result my aunt Liz entrusted Hopkins not to pursue," Newell said.

"The irony of the whole thing is that the one she had turned to for protection became the kind of developer she was trying to protect against," he said.

Farm within a ‘city'

The Planning Board's draft of Gaithersburg West sets a 300-foot buffer along Muddy Branch Road, a 60-foot buffer along Darnestown Road that maintains a clear view of the farmhouse, and a 200-foot buffer between the 52-home Mission Hills community, built up into a wooded area. Towers as tall as 150 feet would be clustered around a station for the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway, a light rail or rapid-bus line that would carry 30,000 daily riders if it goes through the farm. Ten to 12 acres would be preserved around Belward's farmhouse and barns, which would be converted for community or recreational use. Nearly half of Belward would remain open space.

At those levels, the campus would still be twice as dense as the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda — where 7.4 million square feet of building space sit on 310 acres — and nearly three times as dense as the proposed consolidation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, which calls for 2.2 million square feet on 130 acres.

Two civic groups have formed against the so-called "Science City" — Residents for Reasonable Development and the Gaithersburg-Rockville-North Potomac Coalition. They want the most intense development focused around Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Hopkins' 36-acre campus on Medical Center Drive, so that Belward can stay as open as possible.

RRD's plan reduces Science City's build-out by a third and calls on Belward to keep its focus as an academic campus.

Council President Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg also questions the amount of development called for Gaithersburg West and asked county planners to run the RRD alternative through traffic and land-use models.

They have declined to do so.

Correction: The photo information with this story originally misidentified where the photo was taken from.