West Hyattsville master plan overhaul kicks off

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. A draft version of the plan could be ready for comment by June 2022. After that, a public hearing to discuss the draft master plan is slated for September 2022, followed by preliminary Planning Board adoption votes iin December 2022.

West Hyattsville Metro master plan overhaul in the works

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. The resulting document will replace the 2006 Transit District Development Plan overlay zone for the West Hyattsville Metro Station, which currently governs what can and cannot be built near the metro station. Development in the area around West Hyattsville has lagged behind other nearby neighborhoods, such as the Gateway Arts District or the Prince George’s Plaza Metro Station, which have been transformed over the past 20 years by intense mixed-use development and redevelopment projects. 

Officials in Prince George’s County and Hyattsville’s planning and community development offices said a new master plan for the West Hyattsville area is needed to address market conditions, rethink transportation within the neighborhood, and to implement Prince George’s County’s new zoning code. 

According to Kipling Reynolds, a chief community planner with the Prince George’s County Planning Department, the current West Hyattsville master plan anticipated an intense scale of development the market will not bear. “A lot of the ideas put forth in that plan are not exactly feasible anymore,” said Reynolds, noting the plan predates the 2008 Recession by two years. “We want to be ready when the market is there.”

Further, Kipling said the 2006 plan is also heavily tilted toward design guidelines.

Chillum antenna farm trades hands as Redskins sell radio holdings

As part of Daniel Snyder’s liquidation of the Redskins’ radio broadcasting business, a large radio broadcasting facility in Chillum has been bought by the nation’s largest African-American-owned broadcaster. According to state property records, Urban One Inc. bought the 18.7-acre antenna farm at 6000 Ager Road in Chillum, near the West Hyattsville Metro Station, for $828,700 in a transaction recorded August 21, 2018. Silver Spring-based Urban One purchased the property from Red Zebra Broadcasting LLC, the Redskins’ radio media subsidiary. It’s part of a larger $4.2 million acquisition of Red Zebra’s assets by Urban One, according to Washington Business Journal. Snyder announced in May 2018 that the Redskins were liquidating its radio holdings.