<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear neighbors, </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I've wanted to stay back from the current discussion and allow others to get in there thoughts in a free flow of ideas about the Dumm's Corner Proposal and issues surrounding it. Having done so for a while I'd like to share some information and thoughts with you.
</span></div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></div>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">1) The Condo Market. For those who missed it, Riverdale Business Association President and local realtor Audrey Bragg shared some industry information with us that shows the condo market in Prince Groege's County is robust and clearly not part of the wider down turn in the Metro area. Sales were up more than 50% last year and thereby condos seem a good investment in Prince George's County.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The sales picture remains good in the recent report to MUTC by our other local development project Eakin Youngentaub, who remain optimistic about condos in our area.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Lastly, the fact that Pete and Son's must finance virtually the whole project provides us some significant security. This means that a bank will have to actually carry the brunt of the project's risk and if the market were to look truly bleak IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY the financing will simply not happen and thereby the project will never get out of the starting gate.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">2) Congestion in and around the rail road crossing. We have done a fair amount of fact gathering about this choke point, and can fairly conclusively make the following statement:
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The overwhelming majority of trips through the town center neither begin nor end in Riverdale Park. We all intuitively known that "cut through traffic" makes up a substantial part of our problem, but based on combining police ticket information, average household trip information, what we know about jobs based in Riverdale Park and the traffic count we did in the fall of 2005 at least 80% and probably closer to 90% of the traffic coming through at rush hours begin and end outside of town.
</span></div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><br clear="all"></span></div>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thus, any answer to containing traffic must focus primarily on curbing traffic that is, in effect, using our neighborhood streets as a highway. In order to reduce this flow there are several things we are doing or can do: 1) continue to work with State Highway to improve traffic flow on Route One, Kenilworth and 410; 2) consider strategic changing of streets with high volumes of rush-hour traffic to ONE WAY during some or all of the day; 3) closing a few streets outright; and 4) investing in more up-to date intersection monitoring technology.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">REMINDER: there is a Public Safety Meeting this Thursday evening 7:30 at Town Hall. One item open to discussion will be expanding the time that the 4700 block of Queensbury is a one way street. Other ideas will likely be floated and discussed too.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">3) Dumm's Corner Proposal and redevelopment in Town Center. As most of you know, I've always strove to build consensus in the town and no where is that more important than in regard to Town Center and redevelopment. I'd like to catch everyone up on what has happened so far.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">1) The design was submitted to the Mixed Use Town Center Committee in December and was approved subject to it obtaining the necessary variances from several standards. This conditional approval was given because this project meets the overall intentions of MUTC in style, purpose and quality. There were questions about upward of 30 standards out of the 200 standards that MUTC set although the critical one is the height issue. Central to MUTC's approval was that the proposal was for a high quality project.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">2) When discussing the project with the Dumm's team and County Park and Planning, and during the presentation to the town on Monday January 29th, it became clear that there were only three issues, parking, height and setback from the tracks. Pete and Sons then requested the town take a position on these issues prior to their making the $150,000 investment in getting the variance through the County process.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The council unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday February 5th that approved the height and setback, but demanded that the project meet the already lenient parking requirements (the project was already within a very few spaces of meeting the standard). Thus, the town's official position is that the project can be larger, but demands compliance with every other standard set forth in MUTC--99% compliance of the 200 standards. Pete and Son's have assured us that they can and will meet every other standard.
</span></div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span> </div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The resolution made plan that our support is based on the project maintaining the high quality of the original proposal. The town has much power over the process and we have the will to demand that the quality remain through to the end.
</span></div>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Why did the Council agree to these changes? I certainly do not speak for anyone specifically, but as Chairman of the Council I understand our actions as follows.
</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></div>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The biggest factor was that we are now convinced that we are getting a good deal for the town. It will bring significant improvement in a much larger Dumm's market and a genuine restaurant; it will bring more people into our otherwise basically deserted town center; it will hopefully inspire our two landlords in Town Center to get businesses into their spaces.
</span></div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></div>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">One of the reasons we let the Patriot Group walk last spring was that we were skeptical that a project couldn't be done with a reasonable profit margin less than 5 stories, but since then significant evidence has accumulated that this is not the case. Pete came to the town with a four story project and thought he could get the financing for it. We said go see what you can do, and then come back. He did and the banks refused to finance saying it would loose money and likely end up failing. He then added a 5th story to the North building and the numbers now appear acceptable enough to some banks for them to look at the next step.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Is my opinion or the council's based simply on Pete's word? NO! As soon as the Patriot Group walked, I immediately started trying to find other developers that would be "town center" developers and be willing to do a smaller project. Despite meeting with a number of such persons, not one thought there was any way to do it at 3 stories and no one was confident enough in doing a straight 4 story to create a concept plan for me to take to Pete.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Also, we've spoken with our Park and Planning staff and others on MUTC about how the 3 floor standard was arrived at. I specifically asked if there had been any economic viability analysis done during the drafting process, and the answer was a clear NO. However, what did come back from Park and Planning was an equally clear statement that they were not receiving applications for permits for any project similar to this one without it being 5 stories tall.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Lastly, we looked to see who had the guts to get something done.<span> </span>The Council and I have said lets look to successful business men who have made good in our town center to help lead us forward. Enough gloom and doom--lets at least try to succeed.
</span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span></p>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I will continue to try to create a consensus that includes all and was heartened by the good sporting words that were exchanged yesterday on this list.
<span> </span>However, a working consensus has to be based on all of the facts and account for the evidence available to us. Presenting only the negative will lead only to our never having the nerve to move forward. <span>
</span>Let's take precaution against failure, but have the nerve to act with courage to seize a good opportunity. </span><br clear="all"></div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Best wishes,</div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Vern<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Vernon Archer, Mayor <br>Town of Riverdale Park, Maryland </div>