Brentwood

Property notes: Nonprofits buy Brentwood, College Park lots on Rhode Island Ave.

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Two nonprofits have made big buys on Rhode Island Avenue this month, one in College Park, the other in Brentwood.

Development
The modernist facade of Prince George's County's Administration Building in Upper Marlboro.

Developers don’t like proposed Prince George’s Planning tweaks

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Editor’s note: Please see correction notice at bottom of article. Developers want the Prince George’s County Planning Board to tap the brakes on a proposed overhaul of the county’s procedures for reviewing new development plans. 

The most prominent changes include the establishment of a formal pre-application conference with county planning staff and new deadlines that prevent developers from making last-second changes to their plans. 

The formalized pre-application conference is designed to create an opportunity for planning staff to learn more about developers’ plans, in turn giving planning staff an opportunity to inform the developers of what types of reports and documentation will be necessary to move ahead with an application. Initially, it will be optional. But that could change if Prince George’s County Council overhauls the zoning map to reflect a new zoning code passed by the previous Council in 2018. The new zoning code requires a pre-application meeting between developers and planning staff.

Development

What’s next for Magruder Pointe?

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While housing developers eyeing the site of an abandoned Hyattsville office building were recently dealt a procedural setback by Prince George’s County Council members, there’s still a chance a rezoning could move under conditions previously approved by the Planning Board. They just need to properly justify their work. Now, the question becomes how – if at all – Hyattsville should weigh in on the proceedings from here. 

Welcome to the rigidly procedural and legalistic world of zoning and land-use decisions in Prince George’s County. 

Let’s back all the way up. What seems like eons ago, developers Werrlein Properties filed paperwork seeking the approval of a rezoning request submitted as part of a conceptual site plan to build a mix of attached and detached single-family homes on the site of the former WSSC headquarters, which has sat vacant since the early 1990s. It would involve the demolition of that abandoned office building.

Government

Reporter’s Notebook: January brings big stories up and down the corridor

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January has a reputation in the news industry for being a slow month. Well, consider the trend bucked here in the Route 1 corridor. Because it’s the last week of the month, Route 1 Reporter turns its attention to running down the top stories of January. The most-read stories focused on development issues, and who can blame us for being interested in that? Development – or, in the case of many Route 1 properties – redevelopment news is a Rorshach test upon which we project our own insecurities about our communities.

Brentwood

Developer buys North Brentwood properties

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Prime Rhode Island Avenue lots in North Brentwood has been sold to a prominent D.C. commercial real estate investor. According to state property records, several lots near 4550 Rhode Island Ave. in North Brentwood, including an abandoned vintage plumbing store, traded hands last month. The purchase, when combined with a neighboring property purchased in 2013, now leaves the developer with nearly 30,000 square feet of assembled properties fronting a rapidly-redeveloping Rhode Island Avenue corridor. In a transaction recorded Dec.