From Our Inbox: East Campus & College Towns

East Campus Steering Committee meetings have had a number of careful observers. Many agree that three divergent tracks–the university’s goals, the community’s concerns and the developer’s interest in the bottom line–have not coalesced. This may be attributable to a backwards process. The Steering Committee’s work has been akin to a rushed, project-specific visioning process, something that clearly should have preceded the RFP and selection of a developer. Progress has been made with the campus on sustainability issues. Unfortunately, they are simply joining the parade, rather than leading it. But the project’s character will make or break it. One of our readers addresses this below.

The Foulger-Pratt/Argo team doesn’t seem to understand how college towns work, but after listening to the presentations I think it might go beyond the question of what kinds of stores people like to frequent.

My impression is that the team consists of generally well-informed and well-intentioned regional suburban developers. They are very conscious of market trends, and also well mindful of developing standards (in a good way), but are thinking in regional terms, in which different developments are commodities and markets are volatile, with residents and shoppers easily switching allegiance from one location to another. That is why they see Konterra as a rival.

What they don’t see is that College Park is just as much a rival with places like Chapel Hill, Charlottesville and Madison, the places that College Park competes with for human capital. College Park will not be in competition with Konterra for residents, and its potential appeal to shoppers is very different from that of Konterra.

College towns also tend to enjoy greater loyalty from residents than do regular suburbs and the job market is less volatile. I could go on, but I think that it’s this deeper aspect of why this is different from other suburbs that the developers don’t seem to have grasped (or they don’t believe it’s true), and without that many of the other details don’t fall into place. But I think that UM and the City of College Park also bear some of the blame for failing to present a coherent vision of what they can offer that is unique.

East Campus Input Needed 2/27

The East Campus community review process began in August as a series of topical meetings to solicit input and build support. But the process evolved resulting in these principles intended to guide the planning, design and development of East Campus. While the principles are more specific than the University’s first attempt, many worthwhile citizen (and some campus) suggestions were discarded, although there may be hope for sustainability issues. This stage of the community review will conclude on Wednesday, February 27 at 7:30 pm. Please read through the document below and attend the meeting or email your rep with input. Previous posts here, Rethink College Park’s work here. Updated per 2/21/08 revision.

East Campus Principles
The University of Maryland (“University”) and Foulger-Pratt/Argo (“Developer”) are committed to creating a vibrant mixed-use town center (“Project”) on the East Campus to help the University attract top-notch students, faculty and staff, revitalize the physical environment, and enhance the quality of life in College Park and along the Route 1 Corridor.

To that end, after receiving input from the East Campus Steering Committee (“Committee”) representing the University, College Park and surrounding communities, the University and the Developer:
• acknowledge that East Campus constitutes an open, public forum and the First Amendment’s protection of free speech is fully applicable;
• embrace the key principles listed below as a guide in developing the Project;
• commit to exploring the list of specific strategies bulleted below, incorporating these where feasible, and returning to meet with the Committee at appropriate stages of Project planning and design for further consultation;
• understand that the Project must balance competing interests to be both community responsive and economically feasible;
• pledge to effectively utilize public and private financial tools and programs to finance the Project, and that public investment funds, paid for out of Project revenues or tax revenues, will be used to help pay for utilities, infrastructure, parking, public amenities, public art, and environmental enhancements; and
• will submit the Project to all applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations, as well as to a University review process.

Category 1: Design
Key Principle: Create an outstanding architectural and urban design character that complements the surrounding environment by achieving a standard of excellence in the evolving area of sustainable design and inspiring creativity and an appropriate development character for the architecture, landscape and urban places within the Project.
Proposed Strategies:
a. Provide a model that will encourage higher standards for quality real estate design and development along the Route 1 corridor.
b. Reflect an authentic architectural character that is distinct from, but compatible with, that of the campus and College Park, and which incorporates: a) design principles for creating public urban spaces that are safe, well-maintained and attractive to residents and surrounding communities; and b) the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability strategies outlined below.

East Campus Committee Update & Meeting

The final East Campus community input meeting takes place Monday, January 28 at 7:30. The group will discuss principles to guide the East Campus development. We strongly encourage members of surrounding communities to attend and to pass any questions to a community rep. Committee contact info here.

Foulger-Pratt/Argo, the developers of the East Campus project, made a number of presentations to the Committee and public during the fall and finished with a discussion of their traffic study in mid-January. These presentations focused on their schematic design and assumptions for various parts of the project: design, environmental impact, uses, parking, traffic impact, etc. The word schematic is the operative principle here; the developers have not presented much in terms of the actual design of the site. The lack of hard facts on the development posed problems for the Steering Committee since there has not been enough information to really give much feedback or approval of the total project.

In response to this dilemma, Douglas Duncan, UMD’s Vice President for Administrative Affairs and the University’s lead on the project, altered the scope of the Committee’s work to have the Committee provide principles to guide the planning, design and development of East Campus by Foulger-Pratt/Argo. After a plan is available, the Committee will re-group and review the project, likely when the developers are ready to submit their plans to the M-NCPPC.

There have been some glimmers of hope:

the development will integrate the future Purple Line into the heart of the project

they have signed the Birchmere as a main cultural component

there is an agreement to not have big box retailing (though disagreement persists on what exactly constitutes big box retailers)

there will be approx. 1000 beds of student housing created in the first phase of the project (the University will be subsidizing a percentage of those beds)

there will be a commercial adaptive re-use of the Pocomoke Building

The developers have spent much time describing how important it is for this project to make good connections with the University’s campus proper, downtown College Park and the park land surrounding the site.

On the other hand, there are some real worries:

regarding the capabilities of the architectural team hired as the lead

the developer has voiced opposition to a LEED certified project (despite campus sustainability commitments)

it is unclear whether the project will achieve LEED Silver rating for the entire project (this is the University’s acknowledged baseline)

whether the connections suggested will work for the community and site

whether this project will have a sense of place rooted in the UMD and College Park context

what presence locally owned businesses will have at East Campus

it has not been clear just how dedicated the developers are (or what their skills are) to creating a really top-quality mix of uses that catalyzes the creation of a college town for College Park

There is much concern that what the developers have in mind is closer to the new downtown Silver Spring than the beginnings of a Cambridge MA, Charlottesville VA, Burlington VT, or Madison WI.

The University has required that the developer have a 25% minority partner. This project could potentially be a source of good construction jobs for many of the tradespeople living in the Route 1 area. One broader community goal for East Campus might be to gain as much fair access and favorable terms to the construction work as we can.

Schools, Purple Line Mtg. 12/17

and Other Important Odds & Ends

The Purple Line Open House will discuss the entire route and should be interesting. Especially since it seems a new southern route for the Purple Line through campus has surfaced. Map here. However, if this proposal is presented Monday, MTA, UMD and our elected officials need to allow further public input prior to moving forward. A week before Christmas is hardly an ideal meeting date and too much is riding on getting this right.

Prince George’s County Public Schools have released information about the changes necessary to accommodate a county-wide move to PreK-8th grade schools. PGCPS has settled on Version 22 of the plan. The Board of Education could take this up Thursday, January 24. The plan would be implemented in three phases. Check for your school here: choose from the drop-down menu. Several iterations may be offered, and some maybe erroneous, look at Changes and Proposed. We’ll wait to see if and when the Board provides an opportunity for community input. But you could nudge by writing the Board.

The Maryland Transportation Plan needs your input. Secretary John Porcari says: “I am very excited that the Maryland Department of Transportation will be revisiting the Maryland Transportation Plan (MTP) over the next year to update the State’s vision for transportation.” Don’t not let him down, fill out their survey.

The Route 1 Development Forum presentation by Park & Planning has been posted. It is a large file and will take a few minutes to load, but if you missed this meeting, is very much worth viewing. Yup, we really believe you’ll be examining that rather than your gift list. It is valuable though, maybe you can take a look during the post-holiday doldrums.

Give a Gift To Our Economy: Shop Locally Owned This Holiday Season

by Stacy Mitchell

Our successful event with Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher with the New Rules Project, a couple weeks ago did not yield viable audio, but we can offer the slide show (you will need to hit pause between slides) and the article below which makes many of the points discussed. And to help you shop locally, check out Buy Indie.

Whether to patronize a chain or a locally owned business is not top of mind for many holiday shoppers, but it should be. It’s a choice that has profound implications for our economy.

If you shop at an independent toy store, such as Be Beep in Annapolis, Maryland, you will likely see products made by Beka, a small toy manufacturer in St. Paul, Minnesota.

A family-owned business, Beka has opted not to sell to chains like Target and Wal-Mart. Doing so, explains co-owner Jamie Kreisman, would require moving production to low-wage factories overseas, which would eliminate what he and his brothers most love about the business: their relationships with their employees and working hands-on with their products.

Beka is healthy, but its future depends entirely on the survival of independent toy stores. Over the last decade, Wal-Mart and Target have aggressively overtaken this sector and now capture 45 percent of U.S. toy sales.

If you buy groceries for your holiday meals at an independent grocer, like Catalano’s Market in Fresno, California, you will find lots of food produced by small-scale, local farmers, such as Paul Buxman.

Heads Up on Schools

A couple time-sensitive items about schools for readers to follow:
On Monday, December 3, tune to WAMU radio (88.5 FM). Dr. John Deasy joins Kojo Nnamdi in the studio live from noon to 1:00 pm. Likely topics include a preview of the planned PreK-8 restructuring of county elementary and middle schools. We may hear his strategy for addressing the looming state budget shortfall for school year 2008-09. Listen here.

On Monday evening, the PGCPS Board of Education will formally accept for “first reading” one of three plans for this PreK-8 restructuring initiative. This meeting is not open to public comment but, rather, an administrative hand off between Superintendent Deasy and school board members. (See item 15 on 12/3 agenda.) The ensuing boundary changes accompanying any of the selected plans will concern many Route 1 communities. The plan will identify possible schools for expansion of the popular language immersion, Montessori and arts education programs. View the plan after the meeting at the PGCPS board agenda website.

Stay on top of school issues in the northern region by joining this listserve. We understand that once the Board accepts a plan for the first reading, public review and comment will begin. And we expect this to be lively. Look for a schedule of meetings, perhaps as early as December, in neighborhoods to review and discuss the boundary changes that will accompany adoption of the PreK-8 initiative.–MbS & CH

Reminder: Stacy Mitchell on Connecting Retail & Growth to Community

Wednesday, November 28
7 pm Refreshments
7:30 pm Talk & Discussion
Hyattsville City Hall
4310 Gallatin St., Hyattsville MD 301-985-5000

Remember, we invited you? Join us.
As growth in the Route 1 corridor accelerates, what can we learn from other communities? How can we avoid becoming Anyplace USA? Can we use retail as a catalyst for good community development? How can local governments avoid retail sprawl and build a vibrant local business economy? From innovative small-business initiatives to cutting-edge land-use policies, Mitchell offers communities concrete strategies that can create a more prosperous and sustainable future. More on our Events page.

Infrastructure & Good Neighbors

“Infrastructure,” says Goldhagen, summing it all up, “is where architecture and politics merge.”

So architectural historian Sarah Goldhagen wraps up a recent and provocative interview with the Boston Globe that is essential reading if you care about infrastructure. And, we know you do.

Goldhagen says to think of it as a detective story. A bridge collapses in Minnesota. A steam pipe explodes in New York. Water in some cities is found to contain lead…Schools have boarded-up windows but don’t have books…It’s like an Agatha Christie mystery.

But this is much scarier than anything Christie wrote. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, our nation’s infrastructure is barely making the grade, and is mediocre at best.

What, exactly, is infrastructure? For Goldhagen, it’s everything we build that is meant to serve the public: highways, streets, bridges, tunnels, sidewalks, transit systems, utilities of all kinds, parks, soccer fields, even public schools and colleges.

She says we need to think of it all as one integrated whole, and then ask who’s taking care of it. No one, it turns out.

That last sentence is why the Route 1 Growth working group came together. Infrastructure is not sexy, it costs a lot and is, if things are working well, invisible. But it is critical to our quality of life.

We are way behind the curve, probably about ten years and that may be a conservative estimate–and that’s before the 7,600 new residential units. Let’s look at schools. The need is identified, put into the funding cycle (or not), then a site needs to be identified and purchased, the plans prepared, and the project bid and constructed. Roads and transit are similar.

Goldhagen believes that our lives no longer mesh with our method of governance. We live in a metropolitan area and our lives sprawl–in a good way–across several towns daily. Yet we have a crazy quilt of small towns and cities attempting to contend with expensive structural issues that developed over many years. (As mentioned before, 13 of the county’s 27 municipalities are in the Route 1 corridor.)

Although Goldhagen and the recent Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities are approaching different problems, they reach the same conclusion: change does not respect artificial boundaries. We need to work together regionally.

Perhaps that’s possible. The turnout for last week’s Route 1 Development Forum was encouraging. If last Thursday was a layered overview of the Route 1 area’s growth, the Stacy Mitchell event next week should be the fun part–how municipalities can use retail to revitalize. Both events involve our elected officials working cooperatively, like good neighbors do.

Thanks to Rebuilding Place… for the citation.

Listen Up

The standing room only Route 1 Development Forum hosted by Council Members Campos, Dernoga and Olson began a conversation that is long overdue in our area, gathering our elected representatives with planners, school and state highway officials in one room to talk with their constituents about growth. Unsurprisingly, schools and traffic surfaced as the community’s main concerns.

M-NCPPC Planner Coordinator Chad Williams quickly ran down the numbers for the 7-miles of the Route 1 corridor: 61,630 well-educated people in 20,790 dwelling units spread across stable neighborhoods. While unemployment is lower than the county average, the poverty level is above average. According to M-NCPPC, due to the University of Maryland, the area’s demographic skews younger and in some cases, poorer, than the county average.

Filed and in the development pipeline, 7,600 more units, with perhaps a total of 15,000 dwelling units including residential or mixed use projects still in the early planning stages (Cafritz, East Campus, etc.). Over 7 million square feet of retail and office space is built, under construction or planned.

While some student housing will be excluded from the school surcharge meant to fund new schools, PGCPS uses this student yield formula: multiply .44 by the number of residential units. Using the conservative number of 7,600 units, we get a yield of 3,344 new students in an already overcrowded region.

During the presentation and audience Q & A, the State Highway Administration SHA) and Prince George’s County Public Schools representatives indicated what a huge disconnect there is between our planners’ priorities and the community’s. The SHA rep suggested that traffic might be best alleviated by support for the I-95/UMD Connector, a remark that went over like a lead balloon. County and state traffic planners acknowledged that with upgrades proposed for Route 1 between Eastern Avenue and the Beltway take place, no new capacity will be gained for the corridor.

The planned improvements do not include the entire Route 1 corridor or where major new developments are under consideration, e.g., between Riverdale Park/Hyattsville and College Park. Failed intersections such as Route 1 and 410 also will not be addressed.

Campus & Community

The developers of East Campus are charged with creating an instant college town that will allow the University of Maryland to attract the faculty and students necessary to become one of the country’s top ten research universities. However, the project’s potential to act as a development catalyst for the area in a multiplicity of ways: architecturally, environmentally, culturally and socially, while succeeding commercially, is very important. Other universities, including a number of UMD’s top ten peers, are growing and some approach it as a long-term commitment to their neighboring communities. Although there are obvious differences, the planning process itself is worth examination as the East Campus Steering Committee continues to meet.

Harvard University’s Allston Initiative is a largely private, university endeavor. However, in a sense the university has partnered with the City of Boston in reconfiguring the 200+ acres it holds in Allston. From their website:

The Allston Initiative is the planning effort to create the framework for the University’s physical development in Allston. Our goal is to plan in a way that best supports Harvard’s academic mission and growth needs while ensuring that the new campus is an integral part of the broader urban community.

They hired a world class team to design and plan the Allston campus. Originally created in the late 1980s, the Allston master plan has since been amended a few times. The construction takes place over the next 25-50 years and includes moving professional schools from across the river, science lab buildings, undergrad housing and community areas.

The main task force, which has existed for many years, will follow along the entire development trip and meets at least once every month. Additional task forces focus on specific areas: professional schools, science and technology, Allston life, etc. The Allston Initiative adopted the university’s green campus initiative and accompanying programs.

Columbia University’s Manhattanville Initiative is also private; the university owns the 17 acres and is developing the parcels itself. The overall time frame is 20-30 years. Columbia already owns and manages a vast real-estate portfolio and hired a team including Renzo Piano and SOM to come up with a plan to present to the City and the neighborhood

The plan is to create a mixed-use community with academics at the center, not an expansion of the enclosed campus. Development would happen in phases, gradually moving north towards 135th street and west to the river. The community input process has been going for at least 5 years and Columbia’s relationship with the neighborhood is tense at best

You’re Invited: Connecting Retail & Growth to Community

with Stacy Mitchell of the New Rules Project
Wednesday, November 28
7 pm Refreshments , 7:30 pm Talk & Discussion
Hyattsville City Hall, 4310 Gallatin St., 301-985-5000
Given the fast pace of new projects in the Route 1 corridor, we th0ught it might be time for us to step back, draw a breath and look at how retail can be used creatively to build strong communities. Retail is a key component of the many redevelopment projects underway. What are the best practices? How have other regions handled rapid growth or redevelopment? Please join us for a conversation about the Route 1 area’s retail future. (This is a great follow-up to the 11/15 event on comprehensive planning.)

Stacy Mitchell is a passionate advocate for communities and their local economies. Our regular readers may be familiar with Stacy Mitchell’s books and probably have noticed we have republished articles from her newsletter, The Hometown Advantage. Mitchell works with small business groups, elected officials and community organizations and local governments to strengthen locally owned businesses. She advises on new land use and economic development policies. Mitchell is a senior researcher with the New Rules Project, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. She chairs the American Independent Business Alliance and is the author of Big-Box Swindle and Hometown Advantage.
Download flier to email. Download flier to copy.
Presented by Route 1 Growth, Route 1 area communities and community development corporations from Eastern Ave. to the Beltway. Refreshments courtesy of County Council Members Will Campos & Eric Olson.

Ah, Route 1 on the Riviera

We are back from our luxurious sojourn on the Riviera where we never thought a bit about traffic on Route 1, pedestrian safety, transit, TIFs and school seats.

OK, we lied. We have been thinking and meeting incessantly about all of the above and just have not had time to report back. So, a quick round up of the last 45 days in no particular order follows.

Purple Line excitement. At the MTA Purple Line focus group meeting, UMD Athletic Director Debbie Yow came out in favor of the Purple Line in a big way. But she insists it be on Stadium Dr. because of the 60-70 special events each year, rather than on Campus Dr. which is MTA’s preferred alignment. But students need to get to class everyday. This seems to be a point that she and Dan Mote, an alleged supporter of the Purple Line, have yet to grasp. The UMD administrators parroting the party line angered local residents at the meeting.

East Campus community input meetings continue.

Ann Arbor Lessons

As we contemplate the changes that East Campus will bring to College Park, it is worth learning from other college towns. Insights into a Lively Downtown may provide both ideas for remaking the existing downtown and the correct scale for East Campus. This runs 20 minutes and sometimes states the obvious…on the way to explaining why downtowns tick.

Thanks to Kirk Westphal, University of Michigan urban planning 2006 graduate, for posting this. Westphal’s description–
What makes a downtown district appealing? Why do people go out of their way to walk down one side of the street and not the other? Using the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan as a case study, this exploration of successful downtown streets weaves together pedestrian interviews with footage of streetscapes and sidewalk behavior to show what healthy blocks have in common.

Send Your Cafritz Input!

Well, what did you think? Let the Cafritz team and Eric Olson know. Send your questions and concerns to info@cafritzpop.com and send a cc to Eric Olson (this is a request from Olson’s office). Just click the Email Lady! Live outside District 3? Check here for addresses.

• Is the density right for this area?
• Are there too many units?
• What did you think of the scale of the project?
• What about the buildings’ height? What is an acceptable number of stories?
• Are the buildings’ locations tolerable for adjacent neighborhoods?
• Square footage–is it too much? Cafritz’s 225K + East Campus’ 500K + Univ. Town Center’s 225K + EYA’s 30-50K. That’s a lot of space and there is more mixed use coming up and down Route 1.
• How did you feel about the parking garages?
• Access to this project–is it livable for surrounding communities?
• Traffic–is it a deal breaker?
• How many trips will be generated by various uses?
• And schools?

Most importantly, is this a zoning change that should happen? Read about the zoning process here , but since this is a little out of date, take a look at current classes of zoning here. Let us know what you are thinking in the comments or email us at route1growthATgmail.com.

East Campus: Our Local Economy & Independent Merchants

The East Campus Steering Committee will meet Thursday to discuss uses (residential, retail, hotel & office) and market feasibility. Agendas and materials for this and past meetings are also available, just click on the topic. You may find the market study, though somewhat flawed, and lessons learned from Silver Spring worth browsing. The preliminary plan indicates lots of chains and that’s worth careful examination in terms of character and contributions to our community. This pertinent article is reprinted with kind permission from The Hometown Advantage Bulletin, a free email newsletter published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. To read back issues or join the mailing list, visit here.

While many parts of the country are overrun with chain stores, San Francisco remains a stronghold for locally owned businesses, according to a new study, which also found that those local stores generate sizable benefits for the city’s economy.

The San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Association (SFLOMA), one of the sponsors of the study, hopes it will spur residents to choose locally owned businesses more often and encourage cities in the region to re-examine policies that favor chains.

So far, “the response to the study and its publicity has been very encouraging,” said Rick Karp, owner of Cole Hardware and a co-founder of SFLOMA. In an editorial about the study, the San Francisco Chronicle concluded, “The message is clear: It’s time to shop local.”

The study, titled “The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study,” was conducted by Civic Economics, the firm that produced two ground-breaking and frequently cited studies—one in Austin and another in Chicago—that measured the economic impact of locally owned businesses versus chain stores.

The San Francisco analysis builds on this earlier research. It examines retail spending in a region that includes the city of San Francisco and three adjacent suburbs: Daly City, Colma, and South San Francisco.

It begins by calculating the market share of independents and chains in several categories: bookstores, sporting goods stores, toy stores, and casual dining restaurants.

In all four categories, the study found that independents capture a much larger share of consumer spending in the region than they do nationwide. Locally owned bookstores in the San Francisco area, for example, capture about 55 percent of book sales. Internet retailers account for 19 percent of the market and chain bookstores, including Borders and Barnes & Noble, have about 15 percent. Nationally, independent bookstores account for just 10 percent of book sales.

Independent sporting goods stores in the San Francisco area likewise capture 56 percent of sales in that category, while independent restaurants have almost two-thirds of the casual dining market. Locally owned toy stores account for 44 percent of toy sales, while specialty toy chains, general merchants like Target, and internet retailers capture the rest.

In all four categories, the study found that independent retailers were much stronger in the city itself than in the three adjacent suburbs. Local bookstores accounted for less than 12 percent of book sales in the suburbs. Independent toy stores fared even worse with just 3 percent of the suburban market.

The second part of the study analyzes the impact on the city’s economy of shopping at locally owned businesses versus chains. It finds that $1 million spent at independent bookstores creates $321,000 in additional economic activity in the region, including $119,000 in wages and salaries paid to local employees. That same $1 million spent at chain bookstores generates only $188,000 in local economic activity, including $71,000 in local wages and salaries.

Independent toy stores, sporting goods stores, and restaurants likewise create substantially more local economic activity for every $1 million in sales than their chain counterparts, according to the study.

Much of the difference in economic impact is due to two factors. One is that the chains have some of their management, marketing, and other functions carried out at corporate headquarters and therefore employ fewer people locally per unit of sales. In the toy category, for example, for every $1 million in sales, independent stores create 2.22 local jobs, while chains create just 1.31.

The other factor is that the local retailers spend more of their revenue buying goods and services at local businesses such as print shops, accounting firms, web design companies, banks, and so forth. Chains have little need for these local goods and services; many of the dollars that flow into their outlets instead leave the region.

The final part of the study looks at the effect on the city’s economy if residents were to shift the balance of their spending between chains and local businesses by just 10 percent.