Laurel Residents Protest Controversial Church Development

Residents urged the county council to block construction of a church

Residents in West Laurel Tuesday demanded that the Prince George’s County Council block changes to a water and sewer plan that would allow for the construction of a Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Reaching Hearts International Inc. plans to build a 72,000-square foot church on 17 acres at 6100 Brooklyn Bridge Road in West Laurel.  Since 2003, the church has been battling the County Council over zoning rights and sued the county for religious discrimination. In 2008, the congregation won a $3.7 million judgment in federal court.

During Tuesday’s public hearing in Upper Marlboro, residents and church members clashed, with residents contending that such a large building in a residential neighborhood would clog roadways, harm the environment and threaten water quality at the nearby Rocky Gorge Reservoir, which is a water source for 500,000 homes.

“I do have a problem with the large amount of space,” said Rebecca Williams, a West Laurel resident who grew up on a horse farm near the site of the development. “The County Council has an interest to deny this.”

Melissa Daston, president of the West Laurel Civic Association, said the association represents more than 1,200 homes that want the council to vote “no.”

But members of the church, some of whom are also West Laurel residents, fired back. Currently, the congregation rents a facility in Spencerville that members said they’ve outgrown.

“We cannot baptize, [there’s] no place for choir or office hours,” Michael Oxentenko, the church’s pastor, told the council. “We have suffered hardships. We have endured long and hard. It is important for us to have a home.”

Congregation members told the council that the church would be a green building that would include surfaces that allow water runoff to seep into the ground.  Members said that the facility would not take up all 17 acres and would have a wooded buffer between the church and abutting properties.

“We don’t want to contaminate water,” said church member John Butler. “I implore you to give us our church. We need one badly.”

Councilwoman Mary A. Lehman (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel, whose district includes the site, said that she could not comment specifically on the case because of the ongoing litigation between the council and church.  She said the resolution to approve changes for the water and sewage plan is headed to the Transportation, Housing and Environment subcommittee, which will take a vote in May.

WMATA officials eye development in Prince George’s County

In other business, the director of real estate for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority told council members that Prince George’s County would become the national model for transit-oriented development.

During a presentation outlining WMATA’s plans to increase development around the county’s 14 metro stations, metro officials said they plan on intensifying efforts to attract federal contractors to sites in the county with a goal of building successful transit-oriented developments.

“We have a perfect-storm opportunity,” said Steve Goldin, director of real estate for WMATA. “[Prince George’s] is going to become a model of how transit-oriented development should be around the country.”

More than 85 percent of WMATA’s undeveloped land is in the county, even though the county has more stations than any other jurisdiction outside of Washington, D.C., Goldin said.

WMATA would like to maximize revenues from the sale of land around the metro station but stressed that the council should work with Metro to focus on particular stations.

WMATA has already brought on a developer to revamp the New Carrollton station into a sprawling mixed-use development that will feature millions of square feet in office space, retail and housing.

But Goldin’s presentation was met with a tepid response from council members who said he told them what they largely already knew.

Councilwoman Karen R. Toles (D-Dist. 7) of Suitland peppered Goldin with questions on why WMATA was so focused on getting federal leasing space and what the agency was going to do to improve the image of stations in the county by reducing crime.

“We can’t put all our eggs in one basket,” she said.

Goldin said he’s been campaigning to private sector developers to give the county a second look but said in this economy capital and demand are essential to seeing a development break ground.

“I can’t make someone locate an office here,” he said. “You’re not going to see a Fortune 500 company plant its flag in Prince George’s [in this economy],” he said.  “Neither I nor anyone else at Metro can wave a magic wand.”