The owners of the Cafritz property in Riverdale Park want a zoning change to build a major mixed-use development on a wooded, 37-acre single-family-zoned property with, at best, mediocre access to transit. If Prince George's County is serious about its commitment to smart growth and development around its 15 Metro stations, it will deny the rezoning.

In recent years, Prince George's has repeatedly rezoned low-density sites with poor transit access all around the county, such as the Westphalia and Konterra mega-projects.

The county is desperate to attract high-quality mixed-use development, but all too often, this desperation leads it to act against its own best interests. Each time the county allows a huge project in any arbitrary location, it becomes less likely that the right kind of development will come to the Metro sites.

 

A board weighing the fate of 200 acres of property near Bowie State University is expected to make a recommendation next year about what to do with the land.

Among the options for the county-owned land are a mixed-use development and a training facility for the Washington Redskins.

A federal district court judge has ruled Prince George's County must once again consider the application of Reaching Hearts International for sewer service on the church's West Laurel property, saying the County Council's decision in September to grant service on only a portion of the property did not comply with an earlier court ruling.

Judge Roger Titus's opinion, handed down today, is the latest victory for the church in a long line of litigation with the county over the property, which the county has said is environmentally sensitive, where the church wants to build new facilities and a school.

Titus wrote that the county's reasons for denying a portion of the church's application were based on similar environmental arguments that were "found utterly wanting by a jury" in a 2008 case for which Titus also served as judge, in which the jury determined the county's stance constituted religious discrimination.

The developer who wants to build the first Whole Foods market in Prince George’s County was given an ultimatum this week: Delay the project, or lose town support.

The Cafritz family, in return, asked the county Planning Board to reschedule Thursday’s meeting to discuss a rezoning request until next month.

The action stalls the ambitious project, which would bring a 120-room hotel, 995 residential units, 168,200 square feet of retail and 22,000 square feet of office space to Riverdale Park.

Representatives for the Cafritz family have scheduled additional meetings with officials in Riverdale Park, College Park and University Park to hammer out an agreement about the design, environmental standards and the mitigation of traffic.

 

Former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from developers and accepting assorted gifts during a tenure that prosecutors say was rife with greed, corruption and an unchecked pay-to-play culture.

The investigation into Johnson, who led Prince George’s County from 2002 until 2010, came to light more than a year ago when federal authorities tapping his phone heard him directing his wife to flush down the toilet an illicit $100,000 check from a developer and to stuff nearly $80,000 in cash in her undergarments. The orders came as FBI agents tried to get into the couple’s home after witnessing Johnson accepting $15,000 in cash from a developer.

Marvin E. Holmes is sitting on the fence when it comes to gay marriage in Maryland.

Activists who met at the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi Tuesday want him to say yes to gay marriage bill when it comes before the Maryland General Assembly in January 2012. Holmes is a house delegate representing district 23rd in Prince George's County.

Unitarian Universalists are an affirming and welcoming “church” where people from different religious backgrounds or no religion get together on the basis of shared values. They firmly advocate civil liberties and equal rights for all humans

What was once billed as Disney’s first resort in the Washington region and a boon to National Harbor in Prince George’s County is no more. The company has backed out of plans to build a hotel at the Oxon Hill development.

Late last week, Disney announced it was pulling out of the project, citing that National Harbor did not fit in with its current lineup of projects, which currently includes a theme park in Shanghai, according to The Washington Post.

Bringing slot machines to Prince George's County does not fit with the county's development goals and could deter businesses from coming to the county, local ministers say.

Prince George's already has a reputation for crime and underperforming schools, and the social degradation that could occur by bringing slots and other casino-style gambling would further pile on to that reputation, said Melvin Forbes, leader of Family, Faith and Future.

Forbes, with ministers from the Collective Empowerment Group of Prince George's, a coalition of more than 150 local churches, is pitching alternative business models for Rosecroft Raceway, which new owner Penn National Gambling is trying to revive by bringing slots and horse racing back to the track.

Amid the still-skittish economic climate, several Prince George’s businesses touted their successes during a tour by county officials Wednesday.

Companies in Laurel, Temple Hills and Upper Marlboro were featured during the tour, part of Maryland Economic Development Week.

As the state has emphasized its efforts to strengthen the economy through programs and policies, developer Jackson-Shaw, with regional headquarters in Lanham, boasted of its ability to fill 400,000 square feet at the Brick Yard in Laurel and Beltsville in four years. Jackson-Shaw has leased seven of the nine buildings, and has plans for four more.

Tenants include Limbach Co., a mechanical contractor in Pittsburgh, which leased 40,000 square feet, half of which is being used for production and manufacturing. Although the company started with 80 percent of the property, it leased the rest a year later in preparation for near-term needs, said Kyle Knoernschild, branch controller for the location. About 180 people work at the location, with two-thirds doing off-site work, he said.

“We want to point out that Class A space is available in Prince George’s. ... There’s clearly a demand for it,” said Thomas J. Aylward III, vice president of development for Jackson-Shaw, whose headquarters are in Dallas.

A group of southern Prince George's County residents allege county officials used a "secret process" to approve a number of amendments in a plan that allows for more economic and residential development in the southern part of the county, without public input, The Gazette reports.

Residents say the District Council, which the Prince George's County Council sits as when considering land-use matters, approved in 2009 more than 30 amendments to the Subregion 5 Master Plan that make about 7,000 acres in the rural tier open for developmenbt, after public hearings on the matter had concluded.

Prince George's County officials, meanwhile, offered no such drama, though Evans emphasized that the Bowie plan is far from sealed.

"We've got nothing but open arms from Prince George's County," Evans said. "They want the jobs. They want to put a hotel there where the parents can stay."

State Sen. Douglas Peters, D-Bowie, has a teenage son who plays lacrosse for DeMatha High School. The family will spend about $1,500 to attend a tournament in Florida this month, which may or may not involve a hassle.

"We've literally had to drive from one school to another school, and then back to the other school, depending on whether or not you lose," Peters said. The Legends proposal would concentrate those games in a single spot in Bowie, surrounded by existing hotels and restaurants.

"The idea would be to get those kinds of tournaments to come to Maryland, and then we could get the economic spin-off," Peters said.

Cleanup of a federal Superfund site at Joint Base Andrews will proceed with oversight from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – ending a years-long stalemate over contamination at the military facility that is home to Air Force One, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin said Wednesday.

An agreement signed by the Department of Defense and the EPA lists 13 contaminated sites to be addressed at the base, formerly known as Andrews Air Force base, as well as six additional munitions sites that require investigation and cleanup, Cardin’s office said.

State and federal environmental agencies have been working on the remediation effort since the site was placed on the federal Superfund list of contaminated sites in 1999. But attempts to make the cleanup mandatory have stalled for years.

Some development projects in Prince George’s County would have to be reviewed by the police and health departments under two separate bills proposed by lawmakers.

County Council member Mel Franklin (D-Upper Marlboro) wants to implement a program, known as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), that would require the county Planning Board to refer specific design plans to the police department. The department would be allowed to make suggestions about public safety before the board approves an application for multifamily dwellings, townhouses or mixed-used developments.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley held a press conference Tuesday to announce that he would move the state’s housing agency from Crownsville to New Carrollton, a seemingly boring proclamation – state agency moving!! – but one that held incredible importance to developers in Prince George’s.

Imagine having bought some land near one of Prince George’s many underdeveloped Metro stations five years ago, when O’Malley promised to move the Department of Housing and Community Development from Anne Arundel County to Prince George’s. The economy was riding high, the federal government was aggressively leasing and the housing department’s lease had been promised to someone just like you. Lots of options to make a mixed-use development work.

ASK RESIDENTS of Prince George’s County to describe the ways in which the big, majority-African American jurisdiction gets the short end of the regional stick, and prepare for the floodgates to open.

Among the grievances: A quarter of the federal government’s workforce lives in Prince George’s, which brackets the District to the east, yet all but a few of them face long, daily commutes since the feds rarely lease office space there. Private-sector employers also tend to locate their businesses elsewhere, meaning that three in five Prince Georgians must leave the county to go to work, the highest percentage in the region. By and large, upscale retailers have also shunned the county.

As part of an ongoing effort to attract new businesses to Prince George’s, the County Council is hosting a town hall meeting Thursday to discuss proposals to streamline the county’s permitting process.

Obtaining development-related permits in the county has long been criticized by business leaders and officials for being slow and redundant, making the county less attractive to new businesses than other jurisdictions.

The CAB will be open for business tomorrow Tuesday, September 13, 2011. Employees and visitors to the CAB can enter the CAB only through the 1st Floor Entrance (Court House side). The Lower Level of the CAB will remain closed to the public. Read more »

The Planning Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 15, 2011 will be held at the Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation Auditorium (PRA), 6600 Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale, Maryland.
Due to the flood, the Planning Department phone system (at CAB and Lakeside Offices) is not working. However, our email system is functioning and staff may be contacted via email addresses listed on our site.

It brings me great pleasure to announce the 4th Annual Prince George’s County
Community Association Conference, Saturday, September 17, 2011 at the Prince
George's Sports and Learning Complex, 8001 Sheriff Road, Landover, MD
20785, from 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.  This free event is sponsored by Proctor
Landscaping & Masonry; a county based small business; Legacy Investment &
Management; Sage Property Management and the Grounds Guys.

Many said they too want the safer neighborhoods and better-quality stores that development brings. There are also long-established black middle-class enclaves east of the river, such as Hillcrest, where residents are also happy to see more well-to-do black neighbors.

If you were thinking of building a new home in Prince George’s county, you may have just run out of time. The Prince George’s County council has approved a resolution that essentially bans new home projects in a large swath of the southern part of the county.

According to the Washington Post, the measure, which passed Tuesday with a vote of 8-to-1, was proposed over concerns that residential growth in the county is outpacing road improvements.

“It’s designed to prevent further overburdening of the roads in the Brandywine area, particularly the 301 corridor,” sponsoring council member Mel Franklin (D-Upper Marlboro) told the Post.

The acting director for the Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources came under heavy fire from the council, who expressed doubt that he will resolve longstanding code enforcement and permit problems.

“I don’t envy your job,” Councilman Will Campos told Samuel Wynkoop during a tense confirmation hearing Tuesday. “But what you’re hearing is the frustration from our residents.”

Federal officials Thursday revealed the guilty plea of a third developer in the sweeping Prince George’s County corruption scandal.

Daniel I. Colton, 61, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion and to make false statements to the Federal Election Commission, officials said. Colton entered his plea, which was sealed until late Thursday afternoon, on Sept. 13, 2010, according to Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

Tanger has 34 outlet centers in 22 states. Most Tanger developments are in areas that require shoppers to travel long distances, and Tanger officials said the move to National Harbor will mark the first time its stores have been placed close to a metropolitan center.

“National Harbor not only has high visibility and easy access to major highways, it is also minutes away from three international airports,” Tanger said.

Residents and a Washington-area developer who clashed over a proposal to bring an outlet mall to a historic site near National Harbor in Oxon Hill have reached a deal to move the project forward.

According to The Washington Post, Tanger Factory Outlet Centers has signed a deal with the Peterson Cos., developer of National Harbor, to bring its high-end outlets to the complex. The $100 million development would cover about 40 acres, across the street from the entrance of National Harbor along Oxon Hill Road. The project is expected to be one of the few of its kind in development in the nation.

With some residents set against development on an Oxon Hill historic site, a Prince George's County commission on Tuesday night approved a proposal agreed on by the developer and residents.

The Prince George's County Historic Preservation Commission approved archaeological studies to examine the historical value of the Salubria property, a first step in clearing the site for development.

But the commission rejected part of the proposal by the site's owner, developer The Peterson Cos., to remove the remaining structures on the property and delete Salubria from the county's historic sites plan. The site already is zoned for mixed-use development.

The county's economic development corporation needs two more business development specialists at the hearing, an agency representative told County Council members at a budget review session May 4. Most jurisidictions have seven such specialists, while Prince George's has three.

Council members asked what that would cost be, and agency officials said they would let them know at a later time.The agency employs 75 people, costing $2.6 million in wages and benefits, with 26 jobs funded through the county.

Gwen McCall, interim president and CEO of the agency, said the need for more specialists was discovered during a recent audit.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III took office this year pledging to clean up the county’s reputation for government corruption and a “pay-to-play” culture that, if federal indictments are accurate, forced companies to offer officials bribes as a cost of doing business there. Among Mr. Baker’s first acts was to appoint a task force charged with recommending steps the county needed to take in order to restore its tarnished image and the public’s trust in government. This week that body spoke, and Mr. Baker and the Prince George’s County Council would do well to heed its advice. The task force, chaired by former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, urged Mr. Baker and county officials to create an independent inspector general’s office as a watchdog on county government. The new agency would be in addition to the County Council’s already existing Office of Audits and Investigations, which is appointed by the council and therefore has an inherent conflict of interest when its members are involved. The five-member Prince George's County Board of Ethics, a separate watchdog body appointed by the county executive and approved by the council, is nominally responsible for hearing and ruling on complaints of public corruption, but in practice it has little power to hold wrongdoers accountable. For one, it can’t act on its own but instead must wait for a formal complaint to be filed, even if it has reason to suspect government malfeasance. On top of that it lacks the power to subpoena witnesses, has no full-time staff, no regular meeting schedule and no budget. Nor does the county have a comprehensive ethics code that specifies what acts are prohibited.

Two bills that passed the Maryland General Assembly just before its 2011 session ended are nothing more than toothless tigers that will do precious little to change the pay-to-pay culture that lets developers get what they want in Prince George's County....

Current law allows county-level elected officials to receive indirect contributions from developers while, at the same time, being allowed to participate in the review of those same developers' projects in the county.

Sadly, however, the bills that the General Assembly approved on April 7, 2011 (SB 902 and HB 1089) fall far short of making meaningful reforms.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker had high praise for the City of Bowie in his April 7 State of the County address. Baker says the economic development experienced should be the model for the rest of the county.

"I think its fitting that I've arrived here in Bowie where you've faced some of the same economic pressures that we all do, yet you've maintained a steady, healthy economy," Baker told the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce. "You've balanced your budget and have a Triple-A Bond rating.

"That isn't a small feat in these tough economic times."

I just got my hands on the three protests of the General Services Administration's Department of Health and Human Services lease award. Here are some of the salient (nonredacted) points in the documents.

In case you haven't been following the protests over the last few weeks, three losing teams — One Largo Metro LLC, Metroview Development Holdings LLC and King Farm Associates LLC — have all filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the GSA's decision to keep HHS at The JBG Cos.'s Parklawn building in Montgomery County.

Nicola Taveres enjoyed walking to stores and restaurants in her neighborhood in Arlington County. But when she began a search for a house in Northern Virginia, she was priced out of the market, so she bought a townhouse near a Metro station in Prince George's County....

More than 200 residents, planners and government officials met at the Maryland Forward forum on "smart growth," an urban planning philosophy that focuses on creating walkable neighborhoods where people can live, work, shop and play. It was one in a series of meetings established by O'Malley to gather public comment about such issues as the economy, education, public safety and smart growth.

More than 50 representatives of state and local government bodies, Federal government agencies, military bases, utility companies, and universities attended a political summit hosted by the new ownership of Franklin Park at Greenbelt Station, a 153-acre rental apartment and townhome community located in Prince George's County, MD. The participants agreed to form public-private partnerships to help redevelop and improve this 153-acre property that represents about half of the population of Greenbelt.

The ownership has set aside $15 million for both external and interior renovations, explained Fieldstone Properties Sharon Thames, Executive Director of Business Development and Government Affairs. In addition to updating the 40-year-old apartments, Fieldstone Properties plans to upgrade existing community amenities and add a state-of-the-art fitness center and day care provider.

State lawmakers from Prince George's have approved new ethics rules that seek to limit the influence of developers on county officials in a community still reeling from corruption charges against former county executive Jack B. Johnson....

Prince George's ethics bill receives key approval from House delegation

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By Miranda S. Spivack, Friday, March 25, 8:39 PM

State lawmakers from Prince George's have approved new ethics rules that seek to limit the influence of developers on county officials in a community still reeling from corruption charges against former county executive Jack B. Johnson.

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In a series of moves capped by a key vote Friday, county members of the General Assembly delivered a stern message about the need to rid Prince George's of its reputation for corrupt land-use and development dealings. The measure would apply only in Prince George's and does not affect members of the General Assembly, which sparked tensions among local officials and led to suggestions that state lawmakers should also scrutinize their own campaign finance practices.

Under a bill approved Friday by the county's House delegation, County Council members and the county executive would be barred from acting on development proposals if they are on political slates that accepted donations from the developers.

The measure, similar to a proposal originally submitted by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), had earlier been endorsed by the county's Senate delegation and is likely to be approved by the General Assembly.

Prince George's has weathered the economic storm of recent years to become a promising home for retail development, developers said last week as they marketed their projects to tenants throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

The county played host to the International Council of Shopping Centers 2011 Mid-Atlantic Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill's National Harbor, which drew close to 1,500 people.

"The market is just picking up, but we had projects opening up while everyone else was stopped," said Patricia Thornton, spokeswoman for the county economic development corporation. She referred to National Harbor and Woodmore Towne Center in Landover, which opened in 2008 and last year, respectively.

A PACKAGE OF ETHICS reform bills for Prince George's County is making its way through Maryland's legislature. The bills, proposed by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), have been watered down at the insistence of members of the County Council. Yet some positive features remain, and they may start to repair the county's reputation for corruption.

The Maryland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Maryland, is launching Branch Avenue in Bloom, an innovative, multi-partner program to revitalize the area around the Naylor Road Metro station and the St. Barnabas Road commercial corridor in Prince George's county.

Branch Avenue in Bloom combines outside planning resources with community assets to stimulate investor interest in development around the Metro stations in that part of the county. The program managers believe it may be the first effort of its kind in Prince George's.

A proposed $34 million expansion of the Brandywine Crossing Shopping Center is drawing significant interest from businesses hoping to cash in on the project.

More than 150 business representatives turned out Thursday for a briefing at the Colony South Hotel and Conference Center in Clinton, hosted by County Councilman Mel Franklin (D-Dist. 9), developer Faison Enterprises of Charlotte, N.C., and county compliance manager Mirinda Jackson.

Faison plans to add a state-of-the-art multiplex cinema center and new specialty shops to the current lineup of Costco, Target, Safeway, Marshalls and Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. Brandywine Crossing opened in the fall of 2008.

Adams says that before moving, he looked at a two-bedroom house around the corner from his mother's home priced at $285,000. But it had no refrigerator or washing machine, so in 2006, he settled on a five-bedroom home for slightly more in District Heights, Md., a working-class suburb in Prince George's County....

In Prince Georges County, where he lives now, the black population has grown 11 percent in the last decade.

Plans for a major mixed-use development near the MARC station at Bowie State University moved forward last week following a Prince George's County Council vote to create an advisory board to produce recommendations for the development and also the financing of the project.

"The meetings will be public, but I don't know yet when the first meeting will be," said council Chairwoman Ingrid Turner, who introduced Resolution CR-5-2011 on Feb. 1. The resolution created the board with council approval.

The new county executive, Rushern L. Baker III, took office promising a package of reforms to clean up the ethics cesspool. Two of these measures require state legislative action and are now before the General Assembly in Annapolis. Amazingly, they have run into a wall of opposition from the County Council.

We say "amazingly" in part because the newly sworn council members - with the glaring exception of Leslie Johnson, from whose now-notorious undergarments the FBI extracted $80,000 - are actually a major improvement on their predecessors. Most of the worst ethical offenders on the previous council are gone, thanks to term limits. The new council includes several bright lights of unquestioned personal integrity.

Still, the new council is fighting Mr. Baker's ethical reforms in the name of its own precious prerogatives - exactly the prerogatives that helped saddle the county with the abysmal regional and national image it suffers from today.

Local developers and city officials are lobbying Prince George's County Council members to come up with a storm-water bill so that development projects in the county can move forward.

The bill will dictate how much of the runoff water from new or redevelopment projects has to be filtered before it flows off a property site. Until such legislation is passed, all development projects that did not have their storm-water plans approved by May 4, 2010 cannot move forward.

One such project affected by the moratorium is the proposed redevelopment of Laurel Mall, which is more than a year behind schedule. Officials from Somera Capital Management and AEW Capital Management, which own the mall, had said the companies were poised to begin construction on the mall's parking lot, but its storm-water plan did not meet the county's cutoff deadline.

When FBI agents arrested then-County Executive Jack Johnson in a corruption inquiry in Prince George's in November, his newly elected successor, Rushern Baker, was loath to talk about the case. Baker didn't want lurid controversy over an allegedly crooked government to distract attention from jobs, schools and other pressing issues.

It's different today. Six weeks after taking office Dec. 6, Baker talks openly about the need to battle the county's "pay to play" culture.

"We've got to deal with the elephant in the room," Baker (D) said in an interview Thursday. "The perception is you can't get a fair shake in Prince George's County. Whether that's real or imaginary, we've got to deal with it. And the only way to do that is to assure people that here are the extra steps that we're going through to say that is not acceptable in Prince George's County."

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III (D) is asking the Maryland General Assembly to approve two ethics measures to limit the ability of local lawmakers to seek campaign contributions from developers as the county seeks to shed its reputation as a place where businesses had to "pay to play."

...One of Baker's measures would restrict Prince George's County Council members' ability to accept campaign contributions from developers at the same time they are considering legislation that would directly affect developers. A second bill would limit the council members' ability to inject their views into pending development proposals unless a developer or a resident has asked for council intervention.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) will submit a campaign finance ethics package to the Maryland General Assembly that would not only close a loophole in state law that allows developers with pending zoning applications to contribute to slates, but also prevent slates that include the county executive from receiving those contributions.

Baker announced his intent Saturday to present the ethics package, which also includes a second bill to limit the circumstances under which a Prince George's County Council member could call for a review of a developer's site plan. The General Assembly will reconvene Wednesday.

In our last post, we talked about the top 5 smart growth victories of 2010. More and more people are looking for vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods where walking, biking, and transit are real options.

In the year ahead, will our leaders maintain the momentum for smart growth? Or will they make decisions that mean a return to sprawling development, more traffic, higher energy use and the continuation of the east-west economic divide?

Despite the arrest of Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson on corruption charges, the head of joint development for the D.C. Metro said the agency is moving "full speed ahead" with its search for a development partner at New Carrollton, a site that has attracted national attention for its potential as a large-scale, mixed-use, transit-oriented development.

Steve Goldin, director of real estate at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said the barrage of negative headlines over the FBI investigation won't hamper progress.

"I can confidently predict that the incoming county executive and council members know that we are at a crossroads of opportunity in Prince George's County and together we are all determined to move past this incident to create jobs for residents and revenue and ridership for Metro,"

Development deals have been at the center of Prince George's County's most contentious political fights for decades, the source of its highest hopes and deepest embarrassments.

Just after 10:12 a.m. Friday, Leslie Johnson frantically phoned her husband, Jack B. Johnson, the Prince George's county executive.

Two FBI agents were at the front door of their two-story brick colonial in Mitchellville.

"Don't answer it," the county executive said, unaware that more agents were listening in.

Johnson ordered his wife to find and destroy a $100,000 check from a real estate developer that was hidden in a box of liquor.

A lack of cohesive leadership continues to be a major impediment to job creation and quality growth in Prince George's County, business leaders told presumptive County Executive Rushern L. Baker III on Thursday night.

"We need the highest quality development we can get," said Dan Smith of Cheverly, one of about 90 people who attended Baker's last "listening session" with residents at Friendly High School in Fort Washington. "But we need some leadership here."

Maryland transportation officials said they will be spending more than $12 million on new Prince George's County road projects next fiscal year — but added that they still do not have money for many of the county's top priorities.

Prince George's County Council members are planning to vote on several controversial bills just before many of the members leave office in December because of term limits.

The measures would offer tax breaks to developers, implement new stormwater management regulations, make bond financing contingent on minority business participation and give pay raises to nonunionized employees.

The Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission, in partnership with the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation and Economic Development Corporation, has been awarded $800,000 under the HUD Community Challenge Planning Grant Program.

Funds will be used to plan for the expansion of the corridor around Prince George's County's four southern Metro Green Line stations. The goal is to attract new federal and spin-off office tenants and mixed-income housing, facilitated by an efficient and effective multimodal transportation system.

When the glass doors at Wegmans in Prince George's County glide open at 7 a.m. Sunday, shoppers will be stepping into a place that symbolizes the county's continuing transformation.

For a county without any other high-end grocers - no Whole Foods, no Trader Joe's, no Harris Teeter - officials and residents describe it as an impressive achievement.

Less than a year after Prince George's County lost millions in federal housing aid, a report calls on the new county executive to revamp the housing department by conducting a national search for a director, setting up a local trust fund for housing needs and offering more rental housing.

The improvements come after decades of degradation of the Anacostia by development in its watershed -- the 176-square-mile area of land and tributaries that extend into Montgomery and Prince George's counties. The river has been plagued by raw sewage overflows during heavy rains, and oil and grease and other toxic runoff from city streets and parking lots.

"Most of the areas were developed without management, and now we have to go back and retrofit to bring it up to codes," says Ken Yetman, the stream corridor assessor for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

ttention Anacostia Advocates – this Thursday at 10am the Prince George's County Council's Transportation, Housing, and Environment (THE) committee will take up CB-80, the clean water bill. Earlier this summer, advocates achieved a major victory for clean water in the Anacostia with the unanimous passage of Montgomery County's new stormwater regulation. It is now Prince George's County's turn to step up to the plate and do its part. Council Bill CB-80 is substantially the same as what was enacted in Montgomery County, highlighted by requiring the same protective stormwater runoff standard in both new development and redevelopment settings. This is vitally important because it will revitalize the older areas of Prince George's with modern green infrastructure amenities. Studies have shown that green infrastructure like tree plantings and raingardens increase residential property values....

New Carrollton is slated to become Metro's first large-scale transit-oriented development in Prince George's County.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is looking for development teams to partner on a 5.5 million-square-foot project on 39 acres near the New Carrollton Metrorail, Amtrak and MARC stations.

Shoppers Food & Pharmacy said Tuesday it will relocate its headquarters from Lanham to a St. John Properties Inc. development in Bowie this October.

The regional grocer has inked a deal for 25,000 square feet of office space in the Maryland Science and Technology Center, a 466-acre business park being developed in Prince George's County by Baltimore-based St. John Properties.

The site will feature a free fitness center, a café and a lake surrounded by a walking trail.

Prince George's County Economic Development Corp. has earmarked $41.5 million of Federal Recovery Zone Facility Bonds (RZFB) for four projects, slated to create about 3,354 jobs and general millions in local revenues.

The Treasury department program is part of the economic stimulus package of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The projects being funded are a 22-acre commercial site being transformed into a mixed-use development in an established community; two sites being revitalized to create nearly 2,600 jobs; and infrastructure upgrades to preserve essential buildings. The tax-exempt loans associated with the RZFB program provides businesses with access to bank loans at reduced interest rates. The Recovery Zone Facility Bond program does not involve any financial liability for Prince George's County.

The Prince George's District Council has been ordered to hand over documents detailing any money council members received from developers, after a coalition of environments questioned the ethics behind developer-friendly master plans.

In the July 28 ruling, Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Hotten ordered the District Council — which the County Council sits as in land use and zoning decisions — to release affidavits from property owners of their campaign contributions to council members. The District Council has until Sept. 20 to turn over the documents.

Judge Hotten wrote in her opinion that the District Council's "failure to collect affidavits, or acknowledge the absence of affidavits filed because no contributions were made, renders it impossible to determine whether any District Council member had any conflict of interest, which conceivable could have compromised the ability to vote independently and impartially."

The ruling follows an October lawsuit filed by the Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council Inc., a group that opposes the Subregion 5 and 6 master plans that rezone thousands of acres of land for commercial use in the southern and eastern portions of the county.

Metro's board of directors approved an agreement Thursday that will allow Maryland and the transit authority to develop 41 acres they own around the New Carrollton Metro station, a first step in transforming the area into an urban center.

When an institution of higher learning such as Howard University seeks to develop mostly forested land in the rural tier outside the Beltway, it is difficult to understand how it is "good for Prince George's County," as Howard Vice President Artis Hampshire-Cowan said. Ms. Hampshire-Cowan is correct that a biotech research and development campus would benefit the county's tax base, but it is possible to do the right thing in the wrong place.

Legal filings continue to mount awaiting a Prince George's County Circuit Court judge's decision scheduled for later this month on whether to overturn the subregion 5 and 6 master plans.

The case stems from the Prince George's County District Council's 6-3 approval Sept. 9 of amended master plans that rezone thousands of acres of land for commercial use in subregions 5 and 6, which cover the southern and eastern portions of the county. The County Council sits as the District Council in land use and zoning decisions.

The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland has ruled in favor of a Prince George's environmental group that challenged a decision by the county's Planning Board to allow a subdivision to be built in the rural part of the county.

Judge James A. Kenny III ruled that Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities and Kelly Canavan have standing to file a petition for judicial review. Kenny wrote the opinion, which was filed June 24, for the three-member panel.

In Prince George's Circuit Court, the Planning Board argued that since Canavan did not attend the hearing when the board approved the Estates at Pleasant Valley, she could not file the petition.

Prince George's County municipalities may soon get a bit more power regarding the appearance of new developments in their borders.

The County Council approved County Bill 16, which cedes a small portion of its zoning authority to cities and towns. The legislation, passed June 8, allows municipal leaders to make their own regulations for landscaping and other minor zoning matters.

Currently, those decisions and larger zoning matters, such as approvals for new communities and buildings, are handled by the County Council. The council meets as the District Council when making zoning and development decisions. Major zoning decisions will continue to be handled by the council.

Governor Martin O'Malley, joined by Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, state and local officials and community leaders, officially launched the process to move the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) into Prince George's County. Relocating the 330+ employee agency to Prince George's County serves as a milestone in the Governor's transit-oriented development vision for state agencies. Further, the move brings an agency dedicated to neighborhood revitalization closer to one of the population centers it serves most, while promoting smart growth and sustainable communities. To date in FY 2010, DHCD invested the largest amount of mortgage financing in Prince George's County.

"Prince George's County is the second biggest county in our State. Yet in the 375 year history of our State, it has not been home to the headquarters of a state agency, until now," said Governor O'Malley. "Today's announcement fulfills a commitment we made to the people of Prince George's County four years ago. It moves an agency dedicated to revitalizing communities to an area of our state that is rich in history and diversity, capitalizes on the infrastructure investments we've made as One Maryland, and has the potential to spark even more in private development and job creation throughout the County."

The Crofton man indicted by a grand jury last month for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars earmarked for affordable housing projects in Prince George's County is still a free man.

Randy McRae -- the former board member of a local nonprofit group who is accused of scamming an investor and the county out of a combined $50,000 -- has yet to turn himself in, though a warrant was issued for his arrest more than a week ago, Ramon Korionoff, spokesman for Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, said Wednesday.

For the first time in more than two decades, Prince George's County planners are updating environmental regulations that affect stream buffers, water quality and woodland conservation.

You'd think that would be good news to environmentalists.

A Maryland lawmaker is questioning how the General Services Administration selects facilities to lease for federal agencies, suggesting the government's primary landlord has bypassed commercial high-rise office space in Prince George's County in favor of locations in the District and Northern Virginia.

The controversy has revived concern on Capitol Hill, particularly from Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.), that Prince George's County is home to an unfairly small share of federal facilities. Although the county has almost 31 million square feet of federally owned space -- which is slightly less than Montgomery County has but more than any jurisdiction in Northern Virginia -- Edwards said "the overwhelming majority is warehouse space" and that she is looking for Class A office buildings that can jump-start Metro-accessible development.

"Prince George's County is not asking for any special consideration, but it is asking for consideration," she said.

Fri, Jun 11, 2010: 9am – 1pm
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Join fellow Prince Georgians for the unveiling and launch of the Vision, Goals, and Action Agenda to address priority goals developed by stakeholders during the Envision Prince George's 21st Century Town Meeting. Connect with and get status updates on Community Action Teams. Discuss best practices and opportunities to help bring the vision to life.

Guest Speakers include:

* Alaina Beverly, Associate Director, White House Office of Urban Affairs
* Shyam Kannan, LEED® AP, Vice President-Director of Research & Development, RCLCO Real Estate Advisors
* John D. Porcari, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

Combining her position as the FBI's budget overseer with a seemingly relentless drive to steer jobs to Maryland, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski is trying to help the nation's G-men and women build a brand new main office, possibly in Prince George's County.

Word of a possible relocation has started dribbling out. However, an actual move could be years, if not decades, away.

A new secure business park near the Andrews military base could propel the vision for a national defense and technology corridor just beyond the tarmacs that serve foreign dignitaries and the president.

It's probably fair to say that even the unbuilt projects the study looks at won't be picking up stakes at this point to move to a strategically climate-friendly location. But using VMT as a metric in planning for the future would be a pretty efficient way of reducing carbon emissions. And it has a social justice component: Prince George's County is fairly well-served by public transportation, but doesn't have many jobs. Helping people to work near where they live by locating jobs in those communities has a beneficial climate impact as well.

Check out this charge (image) from the Coalition for Smarter Growth. There is Transit-Oriented development planned for New Carrollton Metro Station with a negative change in CO2 emissions. Urban infill with local serving retail in Hyattsville also shows a negative emissions.

Prince George's County has 15 Metro stations, two commuter rail stations and more than 2,000 acres of developable land within walking distance of the stations. But if you don't have a car in Prince George's, good luck getting around.

As other jurisdictions in the region welcome more and more development around their Metro stations — the planning phenomenon known as transit-oriented development — Prince George's is still stuck on the tracks.

The group at Table 63 was so hyped about their discussion that they worked right through lunch. ...

How to improve the county's troubled education system was a hot topic during Envision Prince George's, a six-hour town hall meeting that drew more than 1,000 people to the Sports & Learning Center in Landover on Saturday. The event was organized for residents to discuss challenges facing the county and ways to improve the quality of life over the next 20 years.

The Prince George's County Council rejected County Executive Jack B. Johnson's nominee to head the county Planning Board on Tuesday.

The council voted 8 to 0 to block the nomination of David J. Byrd, a deputy chief administrative officer with the county, to replace Samuel J. Parker Jr. as chairman of the Planning Board.

The Prince George's District Council illegally handled two special zoning requests made in 2007 for the expansion of an Upper Marlboro gas station, the state's second highest court has ruled.

The Feb. 26 opinion from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals is seen as a victory for residents who were concerned about the proposed construction of a larger gas station, carwash and convenience store by Eastern Petroleum Corp. on three acres at Crain Highway, just south of Croom Road.

Do you have an opinion about living in Prince George's County? Are there things you'd like to see changed? Things you'd like to celebrate? Do you feel that you don't have a say in what happens in our county?

Well, now's your chance to voice your opinion and be heard. The Envision Prince George's Project has asked county residents, business owners and those who work in the county to speak out on issues that are important to the future of our county.

We held town meetings throughout the county last fall and now we're gearing up for one last meeting — a 21st Century Town Meeting — to be held on March 20 at the Sports & Learning Complex in Landover.

State officials are launching this week a yearlong effort to write a statewide growth plan, hoping to forge a consensus on how Maryland can curb sprawl while accommodating 1 million more people in the next 20 years....

"If we continue [developing] at the rate we're going, we'll use up 560,000 acres in the next 20 years," Josephson said. That's nearly equal to all the land in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties combined, he noted, calling it "staggering to think about."

Projects proposed
Office and industrial park. ..15 lots for new buildings on 51.4 acres on Queens Court, west of Route 301, Upper Marlboro.
Single-family units and townhouses....104 single-family units and 34 townhouses on 79.2 acres along the Montgomery County line at Old Gunpowder Road, south of Route 198, Beltsville.

Projects approved
Multifamily units, townhouses and commercial space....2,618 multifamily units, 57 townhouses and about 280,000 square feet of commercial space at Belcrest Road and Toledo Terrace, Hyattsville.
Subdivision....13 lots on 31.8 acres on the south side of Tucker Road at Claudine Lane, Fort Washington.
Garden apartments....411 townhouses on 17.04 acres on both sides of Newton Street, near Quincy Street, Bladensburg.
Retail center....113,389-square-foot shopping center on the south side of Central Avenue, 200 feet east of Shady Glen Drive, Capitol Heights.

An effort by Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson to replace the county's chief planning official is being met with resistance from some local officials, who say the move would unfairly tie the hands of the next executive.

Last week, Johnson nominated his deputy chief administrative officer, David J. Byrd, to replace Samuel J. Parker Jr. as chairman of the planning board. If Byrd is confirmed by the County Council, the next executive would be forced to keep him on for the rest of his four-year term.

With a role in approving much of the county's development, the board chairman is one of the most critical appointments the county executive can make. The chairman also alternates as chairman of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson is trying to get rid of Samuel J. Parker, Jr. (right), the man he appointed to lead the county Planning Board, according to Parker and several county sources familiar with the matter.

Johnson wants to replace Parker, who has served since 2005, with Johnson's Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, David Byrd. If Byrd is confirmed for the four-year term, it will prevent the next county executive from choosing his or her own planning chairman for several years.

With a role in approving much of the county's development, the planning board chairman is one of the most powerful appointments a county executive can make. It is unusual for a lame duck executive to seek to remove a chairman of the Planning Board -- especially one he selected.

Limbach Facility Services LLC will receive $120,000 in public funds as incentive for relocating and expanding in Prince George's County.

The Pittsburgh firm, which specializes in mechanical construction and construction services, currently has 150 employees at its 10110 Senate Drive offices and will move to 40,000 square feet in the new Brick Yard Business Park in Beltsville.

A trio of federal agency heads strapped on hard hats and lent their support to Sunday's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which featured two building projects just outside the nation's capital.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined show host Ty Pennington for a tour of the two projects, in which the popular ABC program built a new home and community center that will be used to provide after-school programs to at-risk youths in Prince George's County, Md.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's staff is evaluating a study that discusses the merits of moving either the state's Military Department or the Department of Housing and Community Development to a new location in Prince George's County, a state official said Thursday.

"It is my hope that, in short order, the governor will be making the announcement about the location of a state office building in Prince George's County," Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) said in an interview last week.

Brown lives in the county, which for years has sought to increase the state's presence in Prince George's. No Maryland department is headquartered in the county.

Prince George's County Council members criticized a recent report suggesting sites for biotechnology firms in the county, complaining that its recommendations were only in the northern part of the county.

The economic feasibility study, released in September, only suggested locations in College Park, Beltsville and Hyattsville to develop biotechnology business in the county.

"It's biased, in some respects, to the approach the consultant took. That's just my opinion," Councilwoman Camille Exum (D-Dist. 7) of Capitol Heights said at the council meeting Jan. 19.

Sprawl development comes with many impersonal, mobility-limiting, traffic inducing accouterments. Seven lane roads, grass berms, curb cuts, enormous setbacks, corporate drive-thru fast food restaurants, strip malls... the list is long and ugly. But perhaps the most basic symptom of poorly thought-out suburban planning is in the street grid: the superblock....

I expected to find them in Prince George's County. It is known for poor development around train stations. I did not expect to find them strung along entire routes, almost like an anti-transit-oriented development. But along the Orange and Blue Lines, such is the case.

The maps below show all the self-contained superblocks within approximately one mile of Metro stations.

Travel along a two-block stretch of Central Avenue in Prince George's County, and you'll find a staggering 11 fast-food restaurants.

For community activist Arthur Turner and state Sen. David C. Harrington (D-Prince George's), the strip is evidence of the proliferation of burger joints and Chinese takeouts in the county, especially in poorer, inner Capital Beltway communities.

Pointing to studies that rank Prince George's residents among the least healthy in Maryland, Turner and Harrington want to limit new fast-food restaurants in the county, a far stricter approach than what has been enacted in such places as New York City and Montgomery County, which banned the use of trans fats in those establishments.

State and federal legislators pitched their priorities before the Prince George's County Business Roundtable Monday, including transit and small-business development.

Del. Melony G. Griffith (D-Dist. 25) of Upper Marlboro, chairwoman of the county delegation, emphasized that commercial development around transit centers is one of the major priorities of the county's residents as roundtable members met at the Colony South Hotel in Clinton.

She talked about the day she could step out of Metro stop and pick up "a bagel, coffee and a nice handbag."

A Prince George's County Circuit Court judge has shot down motions filed by a community group to stop progress on the Subregion 5 and 6 master plans that pave the way for development in the county's rural tier.

The Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council fears the highly contested master plans — approved in September by the county's District Council — will spur over-development and burden roads and resources in the southeastern part of the county.

Rural tier preservationists are claiming victory following a Dec. 23 decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals that orders Prince George's County planning officials to reconsider a plan for a 118-acre, 20-home development in Aquasco.

The Greater Baden-Aquasco Citizens Association and other residents filed a petition in Prince George's County Circuit Court for a review shortly after planning officials approved the preliminary subdivision plan in 2006 for a plot known as the Schultze Property.

The association argued the plan would spur more growth than the county's General Plan allowed for in the rural tier, a southeastern section of the county characterized by its agricultural history and its residents' fierce opposition to development.

In a unanimous decision, the seven-judge court found that planning officials failed to consider whether the preliminary plan upheld a section of the General Plan that limits growth in the rural tier to 1 percent of total county growth.

State government enterprise zones in Baltimore city and Allegany and Prince George's counties have been approved for expansion and renewal, enabling these jurisdictions to provide businesses with income- and property-tax credits to help create and retain jobs, according to information from the state Department of Business and Economic Development.

...Prince George's is renewing its enterprise zone to include areas along the International Corridor/Gateway Arts District, the Port Towns and Annapolis Road Corridor, and other areas.

"In the past five years, Enterprise Zone-certified companies have reportedly made capital investments of $100 million, and created more than 2,000 new jobs in the County," said Kwasi Holman, CEO of the Prince George's County Economic Development Corp., in a statement.

The Prince George's County Planning Board must provide a more thorough explanation as to why it approved a residential community in the county's southeastern "rural tier," the Court of Appeals has held in affirming lower court rulings.

Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr., writing for the unanimous court Wednesday, took the planning board to task for not addressing in greater detail how the proposed subdivision fits into the county's master plan, including its residential growth limits. The planning board noted the subdivision "would not be inconsistent" with the county's master plan....

The opinion is the latest marker in the Greater Baden-Aquasco Citizens Association's long-running opposition to the development. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission approved preliminary plans for 20 single-family homes on both sides of Aquasco Road near the Charles County line in December 2005. The proposal was then approved by the planning board, which is part of the commission, in May 2006.

By law, the county's rural tier can contain no more than 1 percent of the county's residential growth, and the planning board's approval did not address how the development would affect the growth limit. A Prince George's County Circuit Court judge remanded the matter back to the board to address that concern, a decision appealed by planning board.

A group of Prince George's County residents and environmentalists who fought legislation that will dramatically alter the landscape of the rural parts of the county by allowing strip malls and thousands of homes is asking a judge to overturn the District Council's vote.

The Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council filed a petition in October alleging that the District Council violated a Maryland Public Ethics Law when it approved the measure.

Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michele D. Hotten is expected to hold a hearing Jan. 10 to decide whether a stay should be granted. Oral arguments have been set for March 18 to discuss the merits of the case.

After years of negotiations with the local officials and struggles with reluctant banks, Majmudar has high hopes for Starview Plaza, which will provide 669 beds for undergraduates in a seven-story apartment complex.

"It has been a very long road for us," Majmudar told a small crowd that included Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, Mayor Andrew Fellows, and members of the county and city councils.

With an asphalt plant, a recycling transfer station and a clay-mining operation down the street from his home, Thurman Jones Jr. hears dump trucks in his sleep. He sees dust on his car. And he occasionally smells an indescribable stench near the community center.

If that weren't enough, the Prince George's County District Council voted last year to allow a developer to build a concrete plant a block away from Jones's home in an unincorporated area known as Cedar Heights, a small working-class community just outside Fairmount Heights and Cheverly.

"It is just overwhelming that they keep compounding the problems in this African American community with these negative facilities," Jones said. "It's really devastating."