WASHINGTON – Johns Hopkins University has won a legal victory in the battle over the fate of Belward Farm, a 130-acre site along Darnestown Road and Muddy Branch Road.
The Baltimore Sun reports that a panel of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals agreed with a lower court’s ruling that the university’s plans to develop the site fell within the agreement they had with Elizabeth Banks when she sold the school the land.
Tim Newell, Banks’ nephew, told The Sun in a statement that his aunt was opposed to development in Montgomery County and would not have given Hopkins the land knowing the school would “create a commercial mega-development of nearly five million square feet.”
Johns Hopkins said in a statement that the school is gratified by the decision and “grateful” to the Banks family, “as we always have been.”
WTOP’s John Aaron contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.
