Route 1 Reporter (https://route1reporter.com/)
A new master-planning overhaul for the West Hyattsville Metro Station has been officially started. At its Sept. 17, 2020, meeting, the Prince George’s County Planning Board unanimously approved a resolution detailing the process and timeline for county planning officials to develop a new sector plan for the neighborhoods surrounding West Hyattsville Metro Station.
Elected officials up and down Prince George’s Route 1 corridor are pushing residents and businesses to report damages suffered as a result of flooding from a day-long torrential downpour Sept. 10, 2020. The hope is that enough damage will be reported for county or state officials to release disaster recovery funding.
An outside investigation into the fatal police shooting of Leonard Shand found major problems with how police handled the events leading up to Shand’s death, while deeming the shooting itself to be “consistent with accepted standards of police practices.” The full 40-page report is embedded below this article and can be downloaded here.
A deluge drenched the Washington, D.C., region Sept. 10, 2020, transforming trickling creeks into raging rivers and flooding low-lying roadways and neighborhoods.
Upper Marlboro – A Prince George’s County grand jury has declined to indict any of the police officers who killed Leonard Shand after a half-hour standoff in Hyattsville last year. The announcement was made by Prince George’s County States Attorney Aisha Braveboy during a Sept. 10, 2020, news conference. A report on the incident prepared by an outside use-of-force expert, Baltimore resident and former FBI agent Tyrone Powers, came to the conclusion that Shand’s killing was ultimately justified because he posed a potentially lethal threat to officers. But Powers said the report made several critiques of the police response on the day Shand was killed.
Neighborhoods in Hyattsville, Mount Rainier and Chillum are getting a second look from Prince George’s County planners, who will soon launch an 18-month effort to create a new master plan that will shape future development near the West Hyattsville Metro Station.
Mount Rainier officials expect the solar panels atop city hall to generate around $100,000 for the city over the next year. That’s a big chunk of change for the city, which – due to a stale email address – earned nothing from the solar panels for the better part of a decade. The news was announced at Mount Rainier’s Sept. 2, 2020, City Council meeting by Councilor Bryan Knedler, who spearheaded the effort to get the panels installed in 2011.
A group of Hyattsville residents hope either the Prince George’s County Council or a county judge will overturn recent Planning Board approvals related to the controversial Magruder Pointe development.
College Park city officials are preparing for a special election to fill a forthcoming vacancy from City Councilor P.J. Brennan, who represents District Two. Brennan, who was first elected to City Council in 2013, announced his resignation is late July. The resignation was prompted by an upcoming move to a new home in the Calvert Hills neighborhood of College Park, outside his district.
Hyattsville will be buying a new garbage truck. Normally. that’s not really Route 1 Reporter newsworthy. But this garbage truck is electrically powered, making Hyattsville something of a pioneer in the still-burgeoning field of electric utility vehicles.