College Park

Route 1 Metro property could become parkland

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A six-acre tract of wooded, Metro-owned land next to Riverdale Park Station has been taken off the market to potentially be preserved as green space. In January, WMATA officials revealed plans to sell the land as  part of its surplus land sale effort to unload vacant land it owns to developers. The Calvert Hills Civic Association in College Park issued a letter opposing the sale and urging local governments to purchase the property. Metro’s price for the land was estimated to be between $2 million and $2.5 million. The property was listed by NAI Michael. 

The land itself is a narrow strip under which Metro’s Green Line tunnels between the Prince George’s Plaza Metro and the College Park Metro stations.

College Park
A long, four-story mixed-use apartment building stretches into the distance in an architectural rendering.

First look: College Park Metro apartment plans revealed

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Plans to build 440 apartments next to College Park Metro Station are taking shape as the project moves through the final development review process. And, well, let’s just say it’s a long building. 

The project is part of a concerted effort by Metro to develop the land around its stations into mixed-use activity zones. The hope is such density will foster increased ridership. The project is being developed by Gilbane Development Co., a Rhode Island-based real-estate investment firm. 

Designs call for a 650-foot wide structure to accomodate the 440 units planned for the site. The plans call for a five-story, 440-unit apartment building with 13,00 square-feet of commercial space.

Brentwood

Opinion: Thomas Stone Elementary students deserve better

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Earlier this month, Thomas S. Stone Elementary School’s principal, Ashanti Foster, was placed on administrative leave after parents and community leaders objected to a planned White House field trip that would have required students to provide citizenship information. The Washington Post reported the principal was suspended over the wording of the permission slip. School district officials have since come under fire for taking such a significant step over such a seemingly minor mistake. But the reality is more complicated. The field trip and permission slip were simply the latest in a long series of management failures.

Hyattsville

In their own words: Crumbling WSSC building a bad neighbor

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This coming Monday, Prince George’s County District Council will decide the fate of a rezoning proposal to allow residential development on the site of the abandoned WSSC headquarters in central Hyattsville. It has become one of the most-divisive development proposals in Hyattsville’s recent memory, becoming a dominant theme in the recent city elections. Opponents of the redevelopment plan claimed a victory in that election when Danny Schaible, an outspoken opponent of the proposal won 52.6 percent of his ward’s electorate, defeating opponent Emily Strab, who was in favor of the development plans for the building. In advance of that decision, Route 1 Reporter spoke with several Hyattsville residents who live next-door to the WSSC headquarters and support the Werrlein proposal. Full disclosure: one of them, Will Seath, was also the campaign treasurer for Strab.