[RP TownTalk] Cut-throughs/development

[Melissa Avery]

Yesterday at the hearing it was said that there is no agreement letter from the University of Maryland for a bridge.
What you are saying is that a new shopping center will be built followed by housing over 30 years.
To us who have lived in the area over 30 years, that does not seem like such a long time and a surprising number of us will still be living here in 30 years.
University Park has vehemently stated that they do not want children living in this project going to their school. 
I  doubt that sentiment will change much over the next 30 years. That would mean by the time your grand kids school age there would still be an argument going on over what school district they would be attending if they lived in the cafrits projects.


________________________________
 From: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org 
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 3:43 PM
Subject: [RP TownTalk]  Cut-throughs/development
 

 
-There is no guarantee that the project will get 995 units.  An adequate public facilities study has not been performed.  I suspect that the APF will allow for it based upon additional infrastructure improvements and offsets etc. but until it is performed we will not know the true limit.  The agreement is for a maximum of 995 so that is the legally guaranteed ceiling of development but it could be well south of that number as well.
 
-The project is phased and there was little indication or appetite for full build-out by the developer.  Do I think that eventually they will build it out, sure – but that could happen in 30 years, or never.  The only thing they have committed to is the first phase of retail including the Whole Foods and potentially (but no solid commitment to) 120 townhomes.  This is very similar to UTC in that if you look at full build-out vs. what is there today it is very different.  In the future that site also will look vastly different when the additional residential and commercial/retail components are built.  One of the core failings that project suffered was its phasing and creating an interiorly-isolated Phase I.  In this discussion much of the negotiation was centered around what they committed to for Phase I.  It is the only thing that there is a solid agreement to build.  The trigger for the bridge is driven by the Phase I retail trigger.  The
 developer wanted the bridge and other triggers driven by the residential build-out which indicates the ‘shoulda/woulda/coulda’ bait and switch that is normally employed.  We stuck to our guns on this and tied the trigger to the retail.
 
-2/3 of the traffic as reported by EVERY traffic study performed on the site is driven by the retail NOT the residential (even at full build-out)
 
-2040 Projected traffic numbers WITHOUT any development are within 10% of 2040 traffic numbers with full build-out
 
-Prince George’s County is currently redistricting schools.  While the plans are not finalized Riverdale Elementary will likely not be this area’s school district nor any part of town west of the RR tracks.  
 
-Letters of support and agreement for the bridge from both UMD and CSX were proffered during the District Council Evidentiary Hearing
 
-Additional covenants on the land have been placed by Whole Foods solidifying the signed lease between WF and the Cafritz owners.  
 
-Financing is TBD as the Adequate Public Facilities Study could increase the offsets they are required to contribute to mitigate traffic or impacts to communities .  The current direction we are exploring is to finance it through a TIF which is a geographically delineated area limited to residential and retail tax receipts on the Cafritz property.  It works fundamentally like this:  the future tax receipts of the improved property will be $X dollars, to finance our share of a current project – i.e. the bridge we give up a percentage of that and only collect 8/10 of X.  So if the future benefit to the town is say 2 million a year in tax receipts we would give up a percentage of it – say 10% of that and only collect 1.8mil.  The numbers are for demonstrative purposes only – there are legal limits on the percentage of the TIF.
 
-The property will have multiple points of access on all 4 sides servicing multi-modal transportation options including the trolley trail (running from EYA up to College Park).  Some of these are pedestrian/bike access only, some like Route 1 are more auto-centric (cars and buses), some like the CSX crossing will be both pedestrian and auto-centric.  Additionally a privately-funded shuttle will be running with a 15-minute headway connecting the site to the CP and PG metro stations as well as the RP Marc/Town Center stop.
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