[RP TownTalk] East Campus Update: Statement of Principles to Guide Development

[marc stauffer]

Hello Riverdalians,

As an update to the progress of the East Campus Steering Committee,  
please see the text and attachments below.  To briefly recap the  
process to date, the developers of the East Campus project have made  
a number of presentations to the Committee and public during the  
Fall.  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  
development in terms of the design of the site. This lack of  
development has posed problems for the Steering Committee since there  
has not been enough information to really give much feedback or  
approval of the total project.  Douglas Duncan, the University's lead  
on the project, has altered the scope of the Committee's work to have  
the Committee provide a document of principles for the development to  
follow and then re-group and review the project once more design has  
occurred and the developer's ready to submit their plans to the  
MNCPPC for review.

There has been some real glimmers of hope:  the development is being  
designed to integrate the future Purple Line into the heart of the  
project,  they have signed on a music venue, the Birchmere, to be 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 is an agreement to attain LEED silver  
sustainability rating for the entire project (this is the  
University's acknowledged baseline), 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 an adaptive re-use of the exist. Pocomoke building in some  
commercial way, and the developer's have spent much time describing  
how important it is for this project to make good connections with  
the University campus proper, downtown college park, and the park  
land surrounding the site.

On the other hand: there are some real worries of the capabilities of  
the architectural team hired as the lead, the developer's voiced  
opposition to a LEED-certified project, and it has not been clear  
just how dedicated the developer's are (or what their skills are) to  
creating a really top-quality mix of uses that attempts to catalyze  
the making of a revitalized college town for college park.  There is  
much concern that the level of accomplishment the developer's have in  
mind is closer to the new downtown Silver Spring than trying to  
create the beginnings of a vibrant college town analogous to  
Cambridge, MA; Charlottesville, VA;  Burlington, VT; or Madison, WI.  
It is the stated goal of the University to act as a catalyst to  
create a physical environment that helps to attract the best  
students, faculty and staff and achieve its ambition of becoming a  
top-ranked university.

One thing the Committee could really use input on is assembling a  
list of retailers/restaurants/ commercial outlets that the  
communities would like to see be present at the East Campus  
development.  The University has asked for input on specific names of  
retailers that are desired so that they can provide that to the  
developer as specific tenants to land. Any help you all can offer on  
this is appreciated; either individually  or as a community. Perhaps  
a list could be assembled that could be presented to the committee  
from Riverdale Park.

The East Campus Steering Committee is scheduled to meet again on  
Wednesday February 27.
The Principles document is attached below.
Feedback from townspeople would be helpful to the process of  
finalizing the Principles document.
Please respond to rpeastcampus at yahoo.com.


Regards,

Riverdale Park's  Steering Committee Representatives


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