Community Corner

Report: Belward Farm Back in Court

Hearing held in court of appeals in legal battle over 138-acre Gaithersburg farm.

The Maryland Court of Appeals in Annapolis reviewed on Monday the legal battle over a 138-acre Belward Farm in Gaithersburg, The Montgomery County Sentinel reports.

The hearing was the result of an appeal of Montgomery County Circuit Court judge’s ruling last year, that a lawsuit seeking to block Johns Hopkins University’s plans to develop a science park on the former Belward Farm should not proceed, Patch has reported.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by heirs of the farm’s former owner who said the size and the scope of the science park go far beyond the small campus that was envisioned when majority owner Elizabeth Banks agreed to sell the farm to Hopkins in 1989.

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John Timothy Newell, Banks’ nephew, told The Sentinel that he was pleased with how Monday’s hearing went.

Johns Hopkins spokesman Dennis O’Shea told The Sentinel the university was confident the appeals court would reach the same conclusion as the circuit court.

Find out what's happening in Gaithersburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Attorneys told the newspaper they don’t anticipate an opinion to come for several weeks or even months. 

>>>See: “Belward farm back in court” at www.thesentinel.com.

  


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