[RP TownTalk] Cafritz Vote

Tue Jul 10 17:28:07 UTC 2012

Sue and Melissa, I agree with many of your points.  I do not know the elected folks in Riverdale Park; we live in Hyattsville.  I certainly know how many of our elected people acted and spoke during our extensive development.  UTC is a poorly planned mess from my perspective and that of many of my fellow residents.  With EYA, many of us repeatedly spoke before our Council of the need for adequate parking in the early, middle, and late planning stages.  Guess what?  Now everyone is scrambling to try to create more parking.  We told them there wasn't enough planned and that it would fail without adequate parking.  We were told that everyone would walk and ride bikes.  I was proEYA because I had worked in downtown Silver Spring when that EYA project was built.  Hyattsville did not get that aesthetic or quality, partially, I have been told, because our elected officials kept meddling.  We begged for traffic studies and traffic remediation.  We
 were ignored until it was too late.  As to county politicians, haven't we all been reading about developers, kickbacks, payoffs, and fraud in the newspapers for years?  I am certainly not accusing or implying anything about anyone involved in this deal, but the climate in the county has led to cynicism on the entire topic.  The increased traffic from UTC and PG Plaza Metro development has been a nightmare for us.  There are business vacancies at EYA, UTC, and College Park.  I would like a Whole Foods near by, but what they are insisting on, as I understand it, is a huge parking lot along Route 1--awful.  The rest is too much density, and it is NOT a short walk to Metro.  Anyway, ladies I agree with you.  Early this morning I e-mailed Campos what I thought of his vote.

--- On Tue, 7/10/12, Melissa Avery <m.avery at rocketmail.com> wrote:

From: Melissa Avery <m.avery at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Cafritz Vote
To: "Sue Collins" <wheadle at yahoo.com>, "jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com" <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>, "towntalk at riverdale-park.org" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 12:10 PM

Bravo Sue for speaking your mind and not letting the bashers intimidate you

From: Sue Collins <wheadle at yahoo.com>
To: "jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com" <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>; "towntalk at riverdale-park.org" <towntalk at riverdale-park.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Cafritz Vote

As far as I am concerned, "We" have no say in this matter at all and no matter what "We" say,  between the politicans, the developers, etc., I'd pretty much imagine it's a done deal and any public meetings, etc., will be merely touchy-feely public relations ploys.  Gonna be another wonderful piece of development and progress just like University Town Center.  As I've noted before, I've lived in the area for most of my 60 years and have seen lots of change - I have never been against responsible change, but this project will not, in the long run, benefit anyone but those with the money and the power ('twas ever thus).  And anyone who thinks that we'll be able to keep our neighborhoods intact, that this project won't impact adversely on the homes, small businesses, etc., in the area, well, they're just kidding themselves.  

From: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 8:35 AM
Subject: [RP TownTalk] Cafritz Vote

Friends/Neighbors –

For those that have not heard, the District Council voted yesterday 7-2 in support of the Cafritz rezoning.  

This is a game changer for the Town of Riverdale Park and it is up to each of us to ensure that the developer’s feet are held to the fire and that they impact our community in positive ways.  Yesterday’s vote was one step in a very long process that will require our town to work with our neighboring municipalities to enforce the conditions that were negotiated with the land.  Regardless of what side of the question each of you were on, we need everyone to stay focused and engaged on this project.

We now have a unique opportunity to get movement from Douglas Development on the direction they want to go with our Town Center as well as spur additional economic development on our section of the Route 1 Corridor.  This, and other situations like Jey’s Auto will be part of the discussion to be had at this month’s Economic Development Committee meeting.  As always, if anyone has any questions please reach out to me directly.

Jonathan

Jonathan W. Ebbeler | Councilmember – Ward One
Town of Riverdale Park
jebbeler at riverdaleparkmd.gov
5008 Queensbury Road
Riverdale Park, MD 20737
Office: 301-927-6381 
Mobile: 404-626-2082

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