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:

Update, 7/14: Here are some higher quality versions we were provided.

“View below is the proposed hotel at Rt. 1 and Paint Branch Parkway (where the Campus Mail facility currently stands).”

“View below is the proposed office complex at Rt. 1 and Rossborough Lane (where the University Police station currently is.) This view is looking North on Rt. 1, with Ritchie Coliseum on the right-hand side of the image.”

“View below is the proposed mixed use along Rt. 1 between Paint Branch Parkway (outside the image to the LEFT), and Rossborough Lane (outside the image to the right). This view would be if you are heading South on Rt. 1. You can see the top of the proposed office complex at the far right of the image. You can also see where there is a proposed new road accessing East Campus. That looks to be about where the Harrison Laboratory is now on Rt. 1.”

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.

After an extensive, seven-month process of official meetings, private negotiations, and Rethink College Park discussions, the East Campus Community Review Steering Committee is set to discuss and (hopefully) approve a statement of development principles that will guide the development of the project. The meeting is planned for this Wednesday, February 27th at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles Carroll Room of the Stamp Union. After Purple Line-induced delays, the developers have also begun detailed design work on the project. Click read more to review the draft document.

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The University has released this statement of principles, significantly more detailed than the last, for the Community Review Steering Committee to debate at the last East Campus meeting tomorrow night. Click here (or “read the rest of the post” below) to review the full text and provide your feedback.

Tomorrow’s meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Prince George’s Room of Stamp Union.

Also, the presentations from the last meeting, about parking, the Purple Line, and transportation have been posted.

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This post is by Clay Gump, a resident of College Park and member of the East Campus Community Review Steering Committee.

The topic of a recent East Campus meeting was traffic and how to plan for it. The East Campus project is going to present a challenge when dealing with the large mix of pedestrian, auto, and bicycle traffic. While the developer representative was detailing the options maintaining traffic flow I recalled a interesting concept I had read about in Discover Magazine called “Shared Space.” The East Campus project could very well present a fantastic opportunity to utilize this concept. Basically the idea is to remove all traffic controlling signs, signals, and rules. Sounds crazy right? Well the numbers sound promising. In the town of Drachten in the Netherlands one intersection had an average of eight accidents per year. After the signs were removed that number dropped to one per year while reducing congestion by 20 percent. Here is a fascinating video discussing this crossing.

The entire concept is based on the idea of perceived risk whereby all creatures (even the road raged commuter) will adjust behavior when there is a perceived risk. Having signs and marking telling the drivers exactly what to do actually discourages drivers to be aware of their surroundings. This might also explain why those with anti lock brakes drive faster and cyclist with helmets get into more accidents. Come to think of it it might also explain why I backed up my new car into a rock even though I had the “parking assist” option. Of course I could just be a bad driver.

Keep in mind this is not a traffic calming scheme or a pedestrian “zone” rather it is a way of incorporating a “community sense” to an area that encourages intermingling of all traffic types. Groovy man.

Another effort is on in the Kensington borough in London to “Declutter” the streets in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. They have reduced pedestrian accidents by more than 40 percent. Considering the safety history of Route 1 in general I think it is time to adopt some new thinking in how we design our intersections. Maybe East Campus could be a model for Shared Space design and give the folks at SHA something to think about when it comes time to improve Route 1.

The East Campus project is located roughly half a mile from the College Park Metrorail station, adjacent ten bus routes, bisected by a bike trail connected to a major regional trail system, and the future home of a Purple Line light rail station.

The project developers have made a guess as to how much less parking will be needed than what is already required under the existing zoning. Included in their parking analysis revealed last night, they’ve provided parking at 90% of the existing zoning for office, 75% for apartments, 90% for restaurant visitors, 90% for retail, 100% required for the hotel and grocery store, and 95% needed for the Birchmere and cinema. At the presentation last night, the developers boasted of the forward-thinking that produced their estimate that the project would require 15% less parking than Prince George’s County zoning requires. Although the traffic study estimated roughly half of the peak trips to and from the site will be not in automobiles, the percentages above represent how much parking will be provided for each use - a much higher amount.

Thanks to these estimates, the developers plan to build roughly 4,000 parking spaces in the first phase, and perhaps 1,500 in the second phase. For the most part, the parking will be concealed at the center of blocks and in two “enormous” (their word) underground parking structures that will span nearly the entire width of the site. (When they are posted, we’ll add the diagram shared with the committee last night.)

However, the biggest news from last night’s East Campus meeting was about the Purple Line. It seems the MTA, Foulger-Pratt, and President Mote have agreed to plan for the Purple Line on Rossborough Lane, one block south of the route anticipated in early project plans.(The farthest south in the illustration to the right.) On campus, only two alignments remain — Campus Drive, and a new, at-grade southern alignment dubbed by the MTA the Preinkert Drive/Chapel Drive Alignment. Over the next month, the MTA will be completing a detailed analysis of the new alignment in order to compare it with Campus Drive.

Also last night, the developers presented their traffic impact study that found the road network would be able to absorb the traffic from the project for the first phase, and for the second phase suggesting several modifications needed including new turn lanes and modifications to traffic lights. As expected, University Park resident Bridget Warren grilled the developer’s traffic consultant over the finer details of the 57-page traffic impact study.

The developers said that now that the Purple Line route has been settled, they will begin to refine and finalize the block structure and architecture of the project. At the next meeting, a committee including the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Dean Garth Rockcastle will present a “design principles” document they have created, and the committee will discuss the overall development principles for the project.

The next East Campus Community Review Steering Committee meetings will be held tonight (January 14th) and January 28th. Tonight’s meeting will examine parking and transportation issues, and the meeting on the 28th will be concerned with the committee’s overall development principles.

Both meetings will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Prince George’s Room of the Stamp Student Union.