Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Members recommended, 5-2-1, that county officials reject the developer's preliminary plan of subdivision.
The College Park City Council voted 5-2-1 Tuesday night to oppose the preliminary plan of subdivision put forward by the Cafritz development team. By doing so, the council joined the University Park Town Council in asking the Prince George's County Planning Board to reject the plan—the next major hurdle in the proposed development of the Cafritz property. In Riverdale Park, where the 37-acre mixed-used project would be located, council members voted 3-0 Saturday to recommend passage of the preliminary plan. Councilmember Stephanie Stullich (Dist. 3), who introduced Tuesday's motion calling for disapproval, cited a range of reasons for her opposition, including: "Critical information was not provided to us or others in this process in the …
Managing the influx of cars has multiple answers, but the Riverdale Park council seeks to keep pedestrian safety at the fore.
When talking about pedestrian safety, traffic and Cafritz, it’s pretty easy to get lost in the conversation. The most recent traffic impact study is, according to Councilman Alan Thompson (Ward 2), nearly three inches thick, being about 400 pages long. There are other documents to be read as well, such as a report that studies the effects of four designs of right turn road lanes on pedestrian safety. In short, like the rest of the Cafritz development, there’s a lot to consider. Projected traffic increase due to Cafritz is, as Councilman Jonathan Ebbeler (Ward 1), says, a “double-edged sword.” “Retail and commercial needs [traffic] to be viable yet it is the bane of residential communities,” Ebbeler said. A natural solution would be to …
Monday, May 13, 2013
Council says several conditions have not been met, though its conclusions are in direct opposition to the county's planning board staff and the Riverdale Park Town Council.
The University Park Town Council Monday unanimously disapproved the Cafritz development preliminary plan, saying several conditions had not been met. The council reviewed its position at a special session Monday night and made more specific its concerns about the development. "Vague objections don't cut it," Mayor John Tabori said. "To simply say we don't like the bridge is not a meaningful objection." The specific conditions the council feels have not been met include: Tabori said several times during the meeting that the council needed to lay out clearly why the council believes the conditions had not been met. The council made clearer its position that the developers hadn't established a funding mechanism for the development even though…
Sunday, May 12, 2013
The Riverdale Park Town Council discussing their approval of the Cafritz development preliminary plan.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Developers have received the required right-of-way to satisfy one of the conditions of the Cafritz property's rezoning.
After several missteps, proposal rejections, and reconfigurations Calvert Tract, LLC has received the required right-of-way to construct a CSX crossing as required by one of the property's conditions of rezoning. In a letter sent to the planning board on Tuesday, UMD agreed to convey property to Calvert Tract LLC that would allow for a reconfigured CSX bridge, referred to as a J-crossing, subject to several conditions. The letter reads: The University believes the Cafritz development will bring an economic benefit to the region and a much-needed amenity to the community. We are pleased to support this important project with an appropriately located right-of-way connection that respects the affected University property. With this letter, …
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Council also introduced the Fiscal Year 2014 budget and discussed the Cafritz development at Monday's meeting
Two recent actions by Maryland's General Assembly have irked University Park Mayor John Tabori and he's looking to get one recent state bill overturned. Tabori expressed his displeasure Monday of a newly approved bill that prohibits municipalities from enforcing vegetation management rules on utilities. Tabori said the Maryland Muncipal League did not do a good enough job of informing its constituents about this bill so municipalities could oppose it. The bill's summary states its purpose is to prohibit a county or municipality "from taking specified actions that interfere with, or materially increase costs of, compliance with vegetation management standards." "I'm incensed by the fact that the gentlemen who introduced it works for a …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
The Cafritz team shared its preliminary site plan with the Riverdale Park Mayor and Town Council Monday night.
As representatives from the Cafritz team showed the Riverdale Park mayor and Town Council the preliminary plans they hope to present to the county planning board next month, they made one thing very clear: Whole Foods is still involved. “We are here to tell you that they [Whole Foods] are still here, they are still committed and they are still very much interested,” Chris Hatcher, a representative for the Cafritz development team, told officials at Monday night's work session. Currently, the Cafritz project is still in the Preliminary Site Plan (PSP) stage. The development’s impact on public transportation, roads, school capacity, and other elements of local infrastructure still need to be evaluated, said Hatcher. For the most part, the …
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The oversight committee will meet on Oct. 10.
Want an update on the progress of the Cafritz project? University Park's Cafritz Oversight & Monitoring Committee will meet Wednesday, Oct. 10 to discuss the proposed development's progress. Members will discuss information they gathered at various Cafritz-related committee meetings as well as a number of other topics. Although the traffic engineer for the project was expected to speak Wednesday, as stated on the agenda, town clerk Tracey Toscano said he will be attending the meeting on Oct. 17 instead. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. in University Park Elementary School's media center.
Friday, October 7, 2011
City council is concerned about lack of details in Phase 2 of the project, however Phase 2 was presented to Riverdale Park's council on Sept. 26.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Residents spoke in favor and against the proposed development project in Riverdale Park Monday night at University Park's council meeting.
With a contentious topic on the agenda, more than a dozen residents attended the University Park mayor and council meeting Monday night. While they listened to the council discuss other legislative items, many prepared notes on what they were hoping to say about the Cafritz property plans during the time allotted for public comment. When the time finally arrived, University Park Mayor John Tabori told the audience he would create a designated area on the town’s website for residents to comment about the project. “I think it’s important that the community hear each other on the issue,” Tabori said. “I’m trying to summarize all the issues…and put them out in the public.” University Park was also asked to contribute to a market study for area…
Peggy Anne
11:47 pm on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
I hope the Cafritz "development" delay drags on for years. But then, I tend to live in a time warp, anyway, and I hug trees. more ›