Rethink College Park

Yesterday, a veritable who’s who of College Park civic life gathered to take a look at the final plans for the East Campus project.

Although a representative from the project architects Street Sense admitted the plans were “still changing as we speak,” dozens of formal MNCPPC “approvals” drawings were scattered about the room, and the team seemed on track for a July submission to the Detailed Site Plan review process.

University officials, student leaders and politicians at the local, county, and state level were on hand perusing the plans. Dour community residents huddled around the traffic table, scouring the numbers presented and taking every last copy of traffic handouts. In the center of it all was Doug Duncan, holding court at a table in the center of the room. Notably absent were College Park Mayor Steve Brayman or Council Member Bob Catlin, although we assume both have already seen some form of the plans presented.

As for the design, reviews were mixed. Many expressed frustration that the designs were too conservative and bland. The University’s Architectural Review Board, which oversees the design of all campus buildings, have been working overtime to finalize the plans with Foulger Pratt and their consultants. However, architecture is an art not a science: one undergraduate regarded the drawings with concern, “I can’t see the campus look here at all,” he quipped, complaining of its contemporary flavor. A theater building and Birchmere Theater were among the most liked, although one well-informed community member acidly quipped about Duncan’s coup from Alexandria that he’d “believe it when I see it.”

The site plan overall held no surprises. The housing had been scaled back from 2,000 units to 1,508, and the phase 2 footprint was significantly smaller than previously discussed. Street connections to Old Town were built, although with bollards clearly marked on the plans. The retail, office, and hotel sizes were similar to earlier plans, and a representative from the architects reported the site continued to have strong interest from potential stores.

When the project enters the public review process, the city, planning board, and county council will weigh in. The required public funding for the parking will be a major issue, and has been little discussed in public thus far.

We’ve requested electronic copies of the submitted documents, which we’ll add here when we get them. For now, here are some cameraphone photos.

This hotel will stand at the corner of Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway. The design has become a good deal more traditional since earlier renderings.

This image shows residential buildings above retail on Route 1, with the office building to the far right.

This view north on Route 1 shows the office building. Richie Coliseum is shown on the right.

Here is the final overall project massing:

This Thursday FP/Argo will present images and renderings of where the East Campus project stands at a meeting this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Maryland Golf Course. We were told by a member of the development team they hope to file a Detailed Site Plan with the County in July.

This meeting is an opportunity for the public to review the plans before they enter the formal county approval process.

> East Campus Open House, Thursday, June 19th, UMCP Golf Course, 7:30 PM

A June 4th comment:

“The City’s parking garage will have its groundbreaking on June 19th. The Mosaic at Turtle Creek condos should be filing its detailed site plan this summer. The Garden Suites Hotel has filed for its building permits. JPI East apartments, townhouses and retail, has applied for its building permits, Mazza GrandMarc Graduate Apartments hopes to begin construction late this year, Northgate condos (owned by Monument Realty) has had some success in appealing an FAA decision that limited its height from the approved 18 stories to only 12 stories. The FAA now says that 15 stories can be built at the site. It may become student housing. Starview student housing is proceeding with a LEED Silver student housing project. Mark Vogel has been able to put Merchant’s Tire under contract to go with other adjoining properties he purchased earlier, to build student housing. Finally, East Campus is working hard to file its preliminary detailed site plan in early July with Park and Planning. Work is proceeding with the County/City on a $180 million bond issue to be financed with a TIF. Other projects are in the early discussion stage, too.”

–> Check the city’s ever-more organized, extensive and detailed Economic Development Update (May) for more.

The MTA has released a schedule of public meetings this month: “These meetings will include updated information from the Open Houses held this past winter and will be the last round of large public meetings before the Alternatives Analysis/Draft Environmental Impact Statement (AA/DEIS) is released this fall.”

The College Park meeting is this Thursday, May 8th at 5 p.m. at the City Hall.

See the project website for the full schedule, including meetings in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Landover Hills, and Langley Park.

As many are well aware, RTCP is in semi-hibernation mode at the moment. We’re planning on a kickoff meeting to discuss the future of the site sometime in May. Until then there are a couple tid-bits to report despite the dampened state of the real estate market. Thanks to everyone who continues to email and post comments about all the great changes coming to the city….

-> Starview Plaza - The Diamondback reports that Starview Plaza is progressing through the early stages of the approval process. The project, which sits just north of College Park Carwash, has languished for years (at least 5?) and the underlying land is owned jointly by the City and University. Originally planned as a hotel, the developer now plans a 500-bed mixed use student housing project with an impressive LEED Silver rating. As the Diamondback reports, there has been much debate over exactly what materials should be used on the facade. The Sector Plan requires 75% brick and as the Mazza Grandmarc debate showed us, the city and the county in particular hold tightly to that standard regardless of how visible certain parts of the building are. The choice is between hardyplank - a composite of recycled materials which helps a buildings LEED rating - and brick (an energy-intensive material) on the least visible parts of the building. Let’s hope the county council departs from its absolutist ways by avoiding unneccessary delays…

-> Campus Construction - The University has released an updated campus construction map, which shows progress on several different projects we’ve blogged about over time. The new journalism building is progressing, the Tyser Tower expansion at Byrd Stadium is underway, and improvements to the Southwest quad and in front of the business school are coming to a close. Also, North Gate Park, a project mired in bureaucracy, funding constraints, and development SNAFUS for the better part of four years is scheduled to start construction this summer. North Gate Park is a joint venture between the city and university and was designed by undergraduate students. 

-> Parking - Recognizing the serious burden that parking requirement place on private developers of student housing, UMD-DOTS via the university’s strategic plan has agreed that students at select off-campus housing complexes can park on-campus. This is a smart move that we think could pay serious dividends by encouraging more student housing. Building lots on Route 1 are small and shallow, thus making the provision of suburban-style parking ratios extremely difficult for dense mixed-use projects. Hopefully the city/county can capitalize on this new policy to implement their Transportation Demand Management plans.

-> Purple Line - There are signs that Campus Drive advocates are making serious inroads. More to come shortly.

Did you know you can purchase a bundle of one-day parking permits to park on campus, get discounted Metro cards, or even rent a Zipcar on campus?

Many of our readers commute to the UMD campus, and others are effected by the choices made by those who work or study here. To the end of encouraging transit and minimizing the number of cars on campus, the Department of Transportation Services has circulated a list of programs and services that encourage “green” commutes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week the Maryland Transit Administration held the latest information session about the Purple Line, revealing updated results of their work estimating the cost and proposed alignments through campus. We did not attend, but have obtained a copy of the presentation (PDF) and videos presented MTA consultants at the meeting. The Diamondback covered the event and even ran an interview with Joel Oppenheimer, the man who has become the public face of the engineering team at these meetings.

The videos show light rail vehicles in the context of campus along the proposed Campus Drive alignment.

Stamp Student Union

Hornbake Plaza

> See the MTA April 9 Presentation

Thanks to Laura Moore for sharing these materials

Or so Graduate Student Government president Laura Moore characterizes (in today’s gazette) the university’s continued opposition to the proposed light rail line on Campus Drive. Administrators continue to claim that vibrations and electromagnetic waves from the transitway will interrupt sensitive research on campus, yet continue to provide no evidence to support their claims. They continue to ignore that the MTA will avoid and mitigate these impacts just as other transit agencies have done the world over in these instances.

Meanwhile, commentor Joe Dexter points out that  the MTA will be returning to the City of College Park with a focus group scheduled for April 9th at 7-9 pm in CP City Hall (4500 Knox Rd).

Lastly, can anyone interpret this quote from UMD VP Doug Duncan in the article?

‘‘People look at it and say, ‘Well, this is where the traffic is today and therefore we have to have the station there,’ instead of saying, ‘Where do we want the traffic to be?’”

Does Duncan still think he is a transportation planner? I thought we dissavowed him of that.