Area residents learned more about Johns Hopkins University's plans for nearly 5 million square feet of development on the Belward Farm campus in a public meeting on Tuesday evening. But without any organizations currently interested in building, many questions for how the land will be developed still remain.

Johns Hopkins University officials and Belward Farm land planners shared details on the preliminary plan amendment for the Belward Farm campus, which Johns Hopkins will submit to the Planning Board for approval before the end of January. The original preliminary plan for 1,410,000 square feet of development was approved in 1997.

The amendment includes more than three million additional square feet of development, for a total proposed 4,737,777 square feet. However, David McDonough, senior director of development oversight for Johns Hopkins Real Estate, said they are not seeking to build more than the already approved 1.410 million square feet at this time.

The amendment includes basic layout of the land — including streets, public space and utilities, in accordance with the Gaithersburg West Master Plan, which the County Council passed in May. But building footprints may vary depending on who decides to build on the site, McDonough said.

A 150-foot-wide public road is planned through the center of the campus, which is where the plan envisions the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) being placed, if approved. In addition to this main road, three more public roads are planned to access the Belward campus. Two would intersect with Darnestown Road and one with Muddy Branch Road.

Several residents of the Mission Drive neighborhood expressed concern about the close proximity of the road's intersection with Muddy Branch and Mission Drive. McDonough said following the meeting, planners will re-examine the placement of that road.

The amendment also details plans for storm water management, including green roofs wherever possible and rain water harvesting and bioretention devices, which will help sustain campus landscape.

The amendment includes forty percent open space, as required in the master plan. This includes the designated 60-foot minimum "buffer zone" along Darnestown Road, which planners call a "linear garden," as well as a 10-acre open space along the Muddy Branch road side of the campus.

But without any organizations expressing interest in building on the land yet, no one can be certain of how the development will look.

"We do not have a building that we are planning on building at this point and time, so we do not have a site plan at this time," McDonough said.

He described the situation as a kind of chicken and egg scenario. There must be a plan to allow tenants in order for groups to begin bidding on the property. But he speculated the campus would allow for an extension of the research already being conducted on their other campuses.

"Groups are thinking proactively now about what type of research makes sense to do in Montgomery County," McDonough said. "We know that Hopkins is already the largest recipient of cancer research. We would likely speculate that there would be more work done on cancer research here given our past history. We also do a lot of work on the central nervous center and the brain and we also do work on heart. We would think the areas we do research today would be likely extensions."

Some residents expressed concerns about the provision that only 40 percent of the development be used for life science and questioned what other businesses will be built on Belward.

Elaine Amir, Executive Director of Johns Hopkins Montgomery County, said the non-science development could include places such as cafes, post offices or dry cleaners.

"Everything is meant to support whatever science we have," Amir said. "We want to create something to keep people on this location, so they don't need to leave the campus during the day. We don't know exactly what it's going to be."

A maximum of 10 percent of the total amount of square feet is allowed to be retail, said land use attorney Barbara Sears.

"Hopkins does not act as a speculative developer," McDonough said. "We start with a need and a user and build something for that need or that user."

But Tim Newell, the nephew of Elizabeth Banks, who sold Belward Farm to Johns Hopkins in 1989 in under the condition that the property be used for "agricultural, academic, research and development, delivery of health and medical care and services, or related purposes only," said he remains concerned about Hopkins plans.

"My family will take every step available to us to make sure the agreements of the deed are kept," said Newell, who traveled from New Jersey to attend Tuesday's meeting.

Although much of the development is likely still many years away, McDonough acknowledged if an organization expressed interested in Belward, building could begin as soon as this year.

Johns Hopkins plans to file the preliminary plan amendment to the Planning Board by the end of January. A Planning Board public hearing will be expected 60 to 90 days after the filing. Owners of property confronting the Belward campus will be notified about the filing and the hearing.

If the preliminary plan is approved, Hopkins could begin receiving offers to build. The next step will be a detailed site plan, which residents will once again be invited to comment on. Once that is approved, building can move forward.

"Theoretically, if sometime this summer an opportunity presents itself for a perfect research facility, then we would come back with you sometime in the summer or fall and say here's a site plan for this building and maybe they take six months to design this building," McDonough said at the meeting. "So if there as a perfect alignment of the stars and a perfect use, it could happen within a year, but I don't think that's likely."