News

Langley Park Renters Sue Landlord, Alleging Discrimination, Inhumane Living Conditions

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Editor’s note: Route 1 Reporter is supported by its readers. If you like the reporting, please support Route 1 Reporter on Patreon. Hispanic renters at two Langley Park apartment complexes sued their landlords in federal court Monday, alleging violations of federal housing discrimination laws over what they say are inhumanely disgusting living conditions because the property owners have failed to make required repairs. 

The apartment complexes are the 488-unit Bedford Station, located at 1400 University Boulevard, and 101-unit Victoria Station, located at 1407 Merrimac Drive, in Langley Park. Through holding companies, both apartments are ultimately owned by Arbor Realty Trust, a New York-based real estate investment firm. Representatives for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Route 1 Reporter. The suit was brought by CASA, a Langley Park-based immigrant civil rights advocacy group, on behalf of eight residents living in the complexes. 

The suit alleges the apartment owners engaged in a systemic pattern of boosting their income by buying apartment properties in low-income areas and performing minimal – if any – maintenance on the properties.

News

P.G. Hospital redevelopment plans could reshape Cheverly

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A proposed redevelopment of the Prince George’s Hospital Center could add a whole new neighborhood to Cheverly, creating what planners hope will be a “destination” mixed-use neighborhood with apartments, retail and commercial space available. 

The proposal comes from the Redevelopment Authority of Prince George’s County, which oversees the redevelopment of county-owned lands. The land will be coming available within a few years, as the 384-bed Prince George’s Hospital, situated on 26 acres called Hospital Hill, begins in June to transfer its operations to its replacement, the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Largo. It’s the end of a long history for the county hospital center in Cheverley. The facility opened in 1944 as a 100-bed hospital. Over the decades, it grew into a 384-bed hospital center, but has 

“It’s not going to be like a light switch where one building closes and another building opens.

News

New data sheds light on Prince George’s PPP loans

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Nearly $1.2 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans went to Prince George’s County businesses and nonprofits to support more than 109,600 jobs, according to a Route 1 Reporter analysis of new, more-detailed data on the pandemic stimulus program released by the Small Business Administration earlier this month.

Coronavirus

Mapping Maryland’s Winter Covid surge

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14 days after the close of the Thanksgiving holiday break, and Covid-19 continues to spread in Maryland. The hardest-hit counties right now are in Western Maryland, which has seen dramatic spikes in confirmed cases over the past month and have resulted in, by far, the most widespread outbreaks seen among Maryland counties since the start of the pandemic. !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”)}}))}();

In Allegany County, there were more than 20 confirmed cases in the past 14 days per 1,000 people as of Dec. 13. Likewise in Garrett County, where the 14-day per-capita count stood at nearly 14 per 1,000 people.

Hyattsville

Hyattsville wants clarity for brewpubs in new zoning code

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Hyattsville officials are pushing for a small change to the county’s new zoning code to clarify rules around microbreweries and other small-scale alcohol production facilities with restaurants. The crux of the matter is the new zoning code section regulating restaurants and bars requires those with “small scale” alcohol production facilities to devote a minimum of either 1,500 square feet or 45 percent of their total square footage – whichever is greater – to the actual serving of food and drinking of drinks. 

Hyattsville city officials want county officials to add language exempting businesses located in “adaptive reuse” buildings or where “the interior layout of the building makes compliance impractical.”

Specifically to Hyattsville, ambiguity in this area of the regulations could affect a number of businesses. Over the past several years, a number of small alcohol producers, including a meadery, a distillery, and several microbreweries, have set up shop in the city, many in buildings that predate these businesses. Potentially, the new regulations could cause permitting issues in the future, though city staff admitted it would require one to interpret the regulations counter to their intent. 

“We certainly have a few restaurants with alcohol uses within the city that are utilizing older buildings. Many of these buildings are close to 100 years old, and they are adaptive re-uses of buildings” said Jim Chandler, Hyattsville’s Economic Development Director, during a discussion of the proposed tweak at Hyattsville’s Nov.