Development

292-home Preserve at Westphalia preliminary plans approved by P.G. Planning Board

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The Prince George’s County Planning Board took action on a preliminary site plan for 292 new homes and a bunch of commercial space at the Preserve at Westphalia. Also before the Planning Board at its May 29, 2020, meeting: A detailed site plan to rebuild a McDonalds in Riverdale Park, conceptual site plans for an ironworks near Fort Washington, and detailed plans for a large storage facility. You can find agenda details from the meeting here. More details below: 

Preserve at Westphalia

With some minor conditions, the Prince George’s County Planning Board unanimously approved preliminary plans for the Preserve at Westphalia which would bring 184 townhomes, 108 detached homes, and 12,500 square feet of commercial space to a 64-acre plot of land at the intersection of Westphalia Road and Richie Marlboro Road. The project comes from Green Revolution Realty LLC. Riverdale Park McDonalds

The Planning Board unanimously approved with conditions a special permit to rehab the existing McDonalds restaurant at the intersection of East-West Highway and Baltimore Avenue in Riverdale Park. The application asked for a departure from development design standards to update the facade and make two additions to the existing building.

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College Park

College Park approves $1.7M coronavirus relief fund

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College Park City Council unanimously approved a $1.65 million coronavirus relief package designed to aid businesses and provide direct aid to city residents affected by the pandemic’s disruptions. 

The vote took place at College Park’s May 26, 2020, City Council meeting, held virtually. The measure is expected to be funded through federal disaster aid reimbursements. 

The biggest line item in the relief package is a $1 million small business assistance grant program. Only College Park city businesses with 25 or fewer full-time may apply. The program provides up to $15,000 per business for to offset losses from business interruptions or decreased customer demand caused by the emergency measures imposed to try to stem the spread of the disease. The grants are further restricted to commercial entities with no more than 10 outlets.

Coronavirus

Confirmed Maryland covid cases plateau; State hospital hotspot shows up on ZIP data

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By May 25, 2020, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Maryland increased to 47,152 and the number of deaths climbed to 2,302. But by several metrics – including daily new confirmed cases, daily deaths and two-week population of new confirmed cases – the coronavirus outbreak in Maryland seems to have leveled off, for now. With many parts of the state re-opening, reports of casual-to-non-existent compliance with social distancing at Maryland’s beachside vacation hubs, and expanded no-symptom-needed testing regimes coming online, it will be interesting to see how these trend-lines move over the next few weeks. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

For instance, charted above, the daily population of people with cases confirmed in the preceding two-weeks has hovered between 12,400 and 13,400 since May 6, 2020. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

Likewise, charted above, the number of daily new confirmed coronavirus cases has been slightly down since May 19, 2020, when a backlog of test results were added into state data.

Development

Hyattsville asks Planning Board delay Magruder Pointe review.

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Hyattsville City Council asked the Planning Board to delay its review of the detailed site plans for the controversial Magruder Pointe development, pending resolution of the city’s legal fight that could reset the review process. Bluntly put, the Planning Board won’t be doing that. So, in a resolution approved during its May 18, 2020, meeting, City Council asked Planning Board to impose several conditions on the project, though most of them concern minor details. It’s the latest episode in the long-running saga of the Magruder Pointe development debate, where Werrlein Properties hopes to eventually build a mix of 70-plus townhomes and attached-homes on property where once stood the headquarters of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. This detailed site plan only covers a portion of the property, roughly 30 homes, though the preliminary plan approval required detailed plans to be approved for the entire property before building permits could be issued.

Coronavirus

Data: Maryland’s Coronavirus outbreak slackens slightly

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The number of new covid-19 infections confirmed in Maryland and in Prince George’s County declined over several days last week, according to a key metric tracked by Route 1 Reporter. Specifically, the number of new confirmed coronavirus infections in the past 14 days has declined from a statewide high of 13,260 on May 11, 2020 to 12,396 on May 17, 2020. Likewise in Prince George’s County, the number of coronavirus cases confirmed in the preceding 14 days fell from a high of 4,233 on May 10 to 3,718 on May 17. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

While the trend is encouraging, the conclusion that the declining number is “a good thing” is based on a number of assumptions, including the assumption that the rate of new diagnoses correlates with the true spread of the disease in any way. It must be emphasized this data only reflects confirmed case counts, and not true infection rates.

News

$50M Laurel Hospital expansion, 230 townhomes approved by P.G. Planning Board

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Prince George’s County Planning Board approved several notable development applications during its May 14, 2020, meeting. Among the approvals include detailed site plans for two townhome projects, one in Bowie, one in Brandywine, with a total of 231 units, preliminary plans for another townhome development in Clinton, and preliminary plans for a 950-bed mixed-use student-housing complex in College Park. But the biggest approval from the meeting was a detailed site plan clearing the way for the first phase of a new “health campus” at the University of Maryland Medical System Laurel Hospital. A rendering shows the exterior of the first phase of the planned Laurel Hospital Health Campus. The new hospital facility plans call for a two-story 79,900 square-foot medical office building and a 1,550 square-foot MRI building near the intersection of Van Deusen and Contee Roads.