Rethink College Park

The East Campus Developer (Foulger-Pratt) will be on hand for questions and comments in the following places:

Student Forum:

—> Thursday, May 3, 3:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m., Visitor’s Center Auditorium, Turner Hall

Faculty/Staff Forum:

—> Friday, May 4, Noon—1:00 p.m., Room 0117, Tydings Hall

General Public Forum:

—> Monday, May 7, 7:00 p.m.—9:00 p.m., Ritchie Coliseum (on Route 1)

As we’ve been reporting for months, the University’s redevelopment of their East Campus site represents a profound change to the campus and College Park community. We highly encourage all who are interested to attend the first (BUT NOT THE LAST) public meetings regarding this $500 million redevelopment. The project will be built within the next 5 years on the corner of Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway. Please forward this information to anyone you think may be interested.

Preliminarily, the East Campus Project is expected to:

- increase the size of campus (in terms of building square footage) by 15-20%

- add 2,000 residential units to downtown

- add 400,000 sq. ft. of retail space (For comparison, the McKeldin Library’s seven floors and basement add up to about 200,000 sq. ft. total)

- add a “Class A” office building (10 stories)

- add a high end Hotel (10 stories)

The project will be about double the size of the Downtown Silver Spring redevelopment.

(Photos courtesy of Foulger-Pratt Companies/Argo Investment Company)

We have just heard that the University and Foulger-Pratt/Argo Investments are hosting a public information forum on the East Campus Development on Monday, May 7, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Ritchie Coliseum to “introduce the preliminary concepts of the development to any and all interested parties.”

This image is one of several very preliminary images released earlier in April.

UPDATE: We have just learned there are TWO ADDITIONAL meetings scheduled for this week. Needless to say, we are dissapointed by the late notice we recieved of these events. We believe it is important all three be well attended:
Thursday, May 3: 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the University Visitor’s Center
Friday, May 4: 12:00 noon to 1 p.m. at Tydings Hall, Room 0117

> RSVP Now on the Event on Facebook
> See our post, “Raising the Profile of East Campus Redevelopment”
> Read a memo we prepared for administrators about public input: Engaging the Community in the East Campus Redevelopment
> See all our East Campus posts

Parris Glendening, former two-term Governor of Maryland and champion of the State’s Smart Growth legislation will appear in Silver Spring to be honored by the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line. Formally a UMD Professor and City Councilmember of Hyattsville, Glendening rose through the ranks of PG County and state politics to become a recognized national leader in sensible development. Wednesday he will talk about the role of transit in smart growth development. We hope to see you there.

“Every new classroom costs $90,000, every mile of new sewer line costs roughly $200,000, and every single lane-mile of new road costs at least $4 million.”

“If you design communities for automobiles, you get more automobiles. If you design them for people, you get walkable, livable communities.” ~ Parris Glendening

Here’s the announcement from CTBIPL:

All interested citizens are invited to join the Coalition on Wednesday, May 2nd at 5 PM as we honor former Governor Parris N. Glendening in the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Auditorium, 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.

In 1999, the Purple Line was many lines on a map. Gov. Glendening will be honored for his leadership in promoting the Inner Purple Line at that critical time. The former Governor, now a national leader on Smart Growth, recognized the value of an alignment that connects Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton.

For Bethesda, the project promised to encourage a continued increase in the use of transit to reach this economically healthy downtown. For Silver Spring, it supported the then-fragile revitalization effort. For the University Boulevard corridor, it promised to open up a somewhat economically fragile area to revitalization. For College Park, the Purple Line could potentially turn around the current dismal transit ridership of the University of Maryland community, and for New Carrollton it holds out hope that this transit-accessible center will be redefined in a more pedestrian friendly manner.

Tomorrow, more that 80,000 people are expected to descend on College Park for the 9th annual Maryland Day. Preparations have been underway since early this week to construct seven villages around campus including, for this year, a “global village” on Hornbake Plaza where participants will be able to purchase sushi, watch Caribbean dance, and even participate in an IKEA furniture assembly competition.

Check out the Maryland Day website for a full listing of events and logistical information.

The Off-Campus Student Association is hosting a forum on tenants’ rights in College Park (off campus). The forum will be Wednesday, March 28, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in the Margaret Brent Room in the Union. Both Legal Aid lawyer Jim Jones and College Park code enforcement officer Jeanne Ripley will be in attendance to give advice.

The forum’s own event description reads:

Students living off-campus have reported concerns about their landlords, housing and leases and often end up in a jam which is why by letting students know about what to look out for, the OCSA hopes to decrease the number of students who end up dealing with legal issues during the school year.

Student Legal Aid lawyer Jim Jones will lead the discussion, and talk about some of the common concerns, questions and scenarios that he sees everyday. Jones has helped a lot of students solve problems with their landlords in the past and sees the number of student complaints rising. College Park’s code enforcement officer Jeanne Ripley will also be present.

The Maryland Transit Administration is sponsoring a Purple Line Community Focus Group meeting tomorrow (Thursday, 3/15) at 7:00 p.m. at the College Park Municipal Center (4500 Knox Road). It was postponed last week due to inclement weather.

From our announcement last week:

“Although the project was recently delayed at least a year, the MTA continues to plan the project and is holding community meetings to take into consideration resident’s opinions. The event invitation says the event will include information about planning that has taken place since the last meeting, held in Spring of 2006. This event will be a good opportunity to learn more about the project and ensure state planners hear from a broad spectrum of the community.”

> Purple Line library page
> Previous Purple Line articles

The Maryland Transit Administration is sponsoring a Purple Line Community Focus Group meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, 3/7) at 7:00 p.m. at the College Park Municipal Center (4500 Knox Road).

Although the project was recently delayed at least a year, the MTA continues to plan the project and is holding community meetings to take into consideration resident’s opinions. The event invitation says the event will include information about planning that has taken place since the last meeting, held in Spring of 2006. This event will be a good opportunity to learn more about the project and ensure state planners hear from a broad spectrum of the community.

> Purple Line library page
> Previous Purple Line articles

The College Park City Council plans to discuss how to handle the timing of special elections at their regular meeting at 8:00 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, March 6th. Readers of this website will remember the January 16th special election for two vacancies on the city council fell during winter break when few students are in College Park, because the city charter required the vacancies be filled within 45 days.

City Council Student Liaison Jesse Blitzstein told us the discussions tomorrow could eventually result in an amendment to the city charter. We strongly urge supporters of student voting rights to attend the meeting.