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.

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.

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Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth poses for a photo.

Hyattsville re-elects Mayor Hollingsworth; Ward results, reaction

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Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth has won a second term at the center of the dais, handily overcoming a challenge from local political upstart Angela Kenny by a vote of 1,243 to 201. Hollingsworth said she wanted to address concerns raised by her opponent during the campaign. “There’s definitely something that Ms. Kenny spoke to, and I want to honor that because I think it’s worthwhile,” said Hollingsworth. “That’s why people throw their hats into the ring, because they feel that there is something not being met, or there’s a need that’s not being served. As a city, it is our responsibility to cover what those things are and adopt it as part of our mission and objective is over the next few years.”

Hyattsville’s most-contested district, a three-way race for Ward Two, Danny Schaible bested challengers Emily Strab and Robert Poisson in a campaign overshadowed by neighborhood development angst centered on a controversial proposal to redevelop the abandoned WSSC headquarters.

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Photo by Michael Theis/Route 1 Reporter

Hyattsville Council candidates take on affordable housing

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Housing affordability has quickly become the most-prominent issue in Hyattsville’s City Council elections. Spurred in part by the rapid urbanization of the Route 1 corridor over the past two decades, several candidates have identified housing affordability as the number one policymaking concern facing the city. Candidates for Hyattsville City Council’s ward representatives met Wednesday evening Hyattsville’s City Council Candidate Forum, moderated by staff from the Hyattsville Life & Times. You can view the debate here. The ward candidates’ debate starts around minute 37.