RTCP Building Awareness of the Student Housing Crunch
March 7th, 2007 | by David Daddio | Published in General College Park, Housing, Politics
Today, we submitted written testimony to the Maryland Senate’s Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee adamently opposing the narrowing of the impact fee waiver zone. As reported recently, we feel the proposed bill in it’s current form would drastically reduce the only incentive for building student housing in College Park. Interestingly, during research for this testimony, we discovered that even the furthest developments qualifying for the existing impact fee waiver (University Town Center) had 90% bus ridership among UMD students. This project’s eligibility for the waiver was contingent on an official relationship with the university’s bus service – Shuttle-UM. If that isn’t smart growth we don’t know what is.
Our testimony provides a framework for a compromise bill that:
• Provides long-term housing relief for University of Maryland students
• Includes the views of student stakeholders
• Respects the wishes of single-family homeowners and neighboring jurisdictions
• Adheres to the state’s smart growth principles
• Recognizes the unique urban planning opportunities and challenges of a college town
