Rethink College Park

A small group of city officials and citizens gathered at the Greenbelt Metro station this morning to observe a balloon demonstration intended to provide residents with a way to gauge the potential impact of the Greenbelt Towne Center project. According to the latest plans provided to demonstration attendees, the current proposal includes over a dozen buildings ranging up to 18 stories. The demonstration included 6 balloons, designed to provide a sense of size to neighborhood residents. The entire complex will include over 2 million square feet of retail and office space, two 150 room hotels, over 1,200 residential units, and a whopping 14,000 parking spaces. The project also includes a section containing townhomes now under construction south of the station along the railroad tracks.

In the photo above, city staff and residents stand in the backyard of city Councilmember John Krouse, who is concerned about the increased density of the project. The view from his backyard (seen below) directly overlooks the Metro and project site. Krouse and other neighborhood residents object to recent changes to the plan that has introduced two 12-story buildings immediately at the Metro Station, instead of making those buildings four stories and “stepping up” to the taller buildings farther into the site.

As we have previously reported the plans we have obtained show the project will contain a one acre park at the exit of the station, and will involve reconfiguring the ramps connecting it to the beltway. Click here for a closer look at the open space site plan shown below.

More images from the balloon demonstration and related to the project are available here.

The developer for the Greenbelt Station project will be conducting an exercise using balloons this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. to demonstrate the height of the buildings planned. The project, which we described last week, includes 2,000 townhomes now under construction and a mixed-use complex of offices and shops located at the Greenbelt Metro Station. The demonstration was planned after local citizens expressed concern about the height of the project. Joe from the the College Park Observer has reprinted a letter from College Park City Councilmember John Krouse, where the councilmember explains his concerns with the project, which has been approved by County officials. Join us at this demonstration to learn more about the project.

Update: We just heard the developer will give a presentation at 8:00 a.m. outside the Metro’s East entrance

Just up the road from College Park, work has begun on the first of two projects in Greenbelt that could add roughly 8,000 homes and millions of square feet of office and retail space to the town, founded during the Great Depression as a federally-sponsored model city. Years in the planning, the projects continue to elicit mixed emotions from residents of the close-knit community and the surrounding neighborhoods worried about traffic, crime, and other impacts of development.

Work has begun on the massive Greenbelt Station Towne Centre, a large multi-use project planned for 240 acres of land adjacent the Greenbelt Metro station. The project is being developed by Petrie Ross Ventures. As it is currently planned, the finished project will feature approximately 2,200 “luxury” residential units, over 1 million square feet of retail, and 1 million square feet of office space in a complex of rowhomes and towers up to 12 stories tall, however the developer told the College Park City Council they are considering even taller buildings - up to 18 stories. The developer estimates the project could result in over 7,000 jobs when complete. Interested buyers can register with Pulte homes to be added to a list for more information. Detailed information about the project’s conceptual site plan approval from the county is available on this website.

The Diamondback reported in August of 2005 that the developer and the College Park City Council negotiated an agreement where the project’s builder would pay the city $2.5 million and construct a pedestrian walkway to connect the project with the city of College Park. An open space concept plan we obtained from December includes over three acres of plazas and parks, including a 1-acre plaza at the entrance of the metro station, shown below:

We will examine the controversial second major project, Springhill Lake, and a proposal by the owners of Beltway Plaza for residential construction on their property in a subsequent post. The New York Times recently examined the projects in the article, “Merging the Old With the New In a Washington Suburb.”