Cafritz Update Slated For University Park

The Cafritz project returns before the University Park Town Council tonight.

Members of the town council will be considering a budget amendment accepting and appropriating $48,700 from the Cafritz developers to fund a traffic study to investigate the impact of the development.

They'll also be getting an update on the development review process. According to Larry Taub, lead attorney for Cafritz Tract LLC, within the next two weeks, the company plans to file the preliminary plan of subdivision for approval by the Prince George's County Planning Board.

Last week, members of the town council were introduced to the new legal and project management team which will be guiding the development project through its final stages. 

Mark Regulinski, one of the Cafritz project managers, used the meeting to review the plans for several conditions imposed on the development. 

He restated the developer's commitments to maintaining a tree buffer along Baltimore Avenue, providing for transit options, and continuing negotiations with the American Center for Physics to construct a bridge over the CSX tracks to the east of the development. The access is needed to ease the traffic burden along Route 1 and East-West Highway expected to be generated by the development.

Regulinski said that the discussions with ACP have been robust.

"I think we are rapidly approaching a position where that can be realized," said Regulinski at last week's town council meeting. "We are very optimistic about the development…the original architects are torn between destroying the Walden Pond-like setting of [the ACP campus] and providing a need for access issues."

Regulinski also said that the financing of the proposed bridge has not been nailed down yet.

The University Park Town Council meets tonight at University Park Elementary School at 7:30 p.m.