Book Exchange Development Revisions Not Good Enough, Planning Staffs Say

Developers behind the project have revised part of the design for the proposed student-housing complex, but the city and county planning staffs are not ready to support the project.

New plans from the developers show changes on the east side of the building, including the use of masonry and grey brick instead of red brick. This will help to make the building blend more with the historic district, lead developer Ilya Zusin said.

The east side of the complex, which faces Yale Avenue, also steps down to four stories instead of the full six levels that the original plan included. But the city and county planning staffs said that the building needs to taper to a lower height.

Further, altering the visage just on the east side will not fit in with the rest of the building, according to letters from both staffs.

The Prince George’s County Planning Board in Upper Marlboro, so that they had more time to work with city representatives on their concerns with the project, including the lack of a step-back. But Councilwoman (Dist. 3) felt the adjustments aren’t enough.

“What we have here are some concessions that I believe the developers believe will satisfy the planning board,” she said at Tuesday’s Mayor and Council worksession, where Zusin and the developers’ attorney Michele La Rocca presented the revisions.

“It’s not what we asked for. ,” Stullich said. 

Although the changes “represented an improvement,” city planning staff expressed in a memo to the city council that the building should step down to a maximum of two or three stories, because it faces an area zoned for residential use.

Jill Kosack, a planning coordinator with the county planning staff, said at the Dec. 8 hearing that the lack of a step-back conflicts with the Development District Overlay Zone requirements. The new revisions still didn’t meet the requirement, she wrote in a letter to the developers.

But Zusin said the project meets all the requirements necessary, and that the step-down to four levels is a compromise, since the developers weren’t planning to incorporate it at all.

“We’re trying to work with them and compromise. It hasn’t been reciprocated at all [from the city],” he said, and added that he believes the city’s main concern is with the use of the facility.

“It seems like they can’t get over the fact that it’s student housing,” Zusin said.

College Park’s planning staff and council have butted with the developers for months over the project, which would place about 1,000 students at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and College Avenue. .

The step-down would reduce the number of housing units by about 10 percent, but would only cut from the area designated for graduate student housing. La Rocca said that the team expects to have more exact numbers by this coming Tuesday’s mayor and council meeting.

The City Council voted in October to oppose the project. Stullich said she doesn’t think the developers expect the council to change its position next week. “I don’t think they care,” she said.

“Obviously, we’d rather have [College Park City Council] with us than against us,” La Rocca said.

The Prince George’s County Planning Board public hearing will continue on Jan. 19 in Upper Marlboro. The hearing will be live streamed here.