Planning Staff to Recommend Cafritz Zoning Approval With Conditions

After numerous meetings about the proposed development of the along Baltimore Avenue in Riverdale Park, the county's planning board will finally get a chance to hear testimony and staff reports about the project on Dec. 15.

On Wednesday, Riverdale Park Councilman Jonathan Ebbeler, e-mailed residents with a copy of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission agenda, which stated that staff will recommend the board approve the zoning change with conditions.

Jane Cafritz, and her husband Calvin, the current owners of the property, hope to develop it into mixed-use center that would become the home of the county's first . However, the property is currently zoned R-55, or for single-family homes only and the owners are asking that it be changed to M-UTC, which is a mixed-use of residential and commercial space. 

Although the long-range agenda has been released, the staff reports may not be available to the public until Dec. 1.

Already residents and community leaders are criticizing the agenda's language, because municipalities have yet to vote on the zoning change. Riverdale Park's listserv was full of questions Wednesday about whether their opinions would be taken into consideration.

"While in follow-up conversations with M-NCPPC we have learned that this is an internal requirement to have a placeholder on the agenda, I do not think that the approval should be of sufficient surprise to anyone who has followed the Cafritz project," Ebbeler said to Patch, via e-mail. "Approval for the zoning is not the same as approval for a detailed site plan that includes street grids, building and greenspace layouts etc."

"That being considered, I believe M-NCPPC should have withheld even a 'placeholder' opinion until the public record was established in totality by Riverdale Park and our sister municipalities," he wrote.

"I am not surprised about the 'approve with conditions' presumption on a staff report which is not yet written," University Park Councilman Len Carey said. "What is important, however, is what those conditions will be, and whether meeting those conditions will make the Cafritz development a success … or an albatross around the necks of the adjacent communities."

Andrea Davey, spokeswoman for the county's parks and planning commission, said that residents and municipalities can submit letters and e-mails to M-NCPPC until Dec. 15. Written correspondence should be addressed to Elizabeth M. Hewlett, Chairman, Prince George’s County Planning Board, 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, 4th Floor, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, 20772, or by fax to 301-952-5074 or e-mail to PublicAffairs@ppd.mncppc.org

Testimony will also be accepted at the 1 p.m. hearing on Dec. 15.

Davey said the record would remain open until the planning board makes its decision.