Council Approves Plans for Landy Property

At its meeting Monday, the Hyattsville City Council approved – with slight changes – a revised detailed site plan for the Landy development.

Council members Ruth Ann Frazier (Ward 5), Paula Perry (Ward 4) and Timothy Hunt (Ward 3) voted against the plan. Mayor William Gardiner voted in favor of the plan, casting the deciding vote.

Phase one is proposed to have 406 apartments in a building facing Belcrest Road. The total project would have more than one thousand apartments.

"You think of apartment-dwellers as people that really aren't that interested in the community," Frazier told Chip Reid, attorney for Landy property owner Marvin Blumberg.

She also said that she does not approve of the development's potential impact on local schools and police.

Blumberg will pay about $3 million in school surcharge fees, Reid said.

The area is zoned as R10, high-density residential, Gardiner said. Only certain projects can be developed on the site because of how it has been zoned by Prince George's County.

The council last week heard from Reid about the new plans, which call for only a five-story building in phase one of the three-phase project.

The project, which originally included seven phases of 16-story high-rise apartment buildings, has been before the Prince George's District Council for three years and was recently remanded back to the county planning board.

The building would have fifth-story lofts with pitched roofs to try to meet the county's six-story rule in the Transit District Development Plan, Reid said.

The council is requesting three slight revisions:

1. The applicant should agree to achieve LEED silver certification for all three phases of the development;

2. The applicant should continue its commitment to storm water management of the site; and

3. The developer must agree to annexation of phase one of the plan.

In revised plans, the city boundary line ran through the phase one building, cutting about 40 units out of Hyattsville and into an unincorporated area of the county, Reid said.

Hunt spoke as though he was in favor of the project until the council voted to strike a portion of its third revision stating that Blumberg should work with adjacent municipalities and private entities on storm water management.

"This seems like a fair proposal," he said. "I'm OK with this 400 (apartments). Let's see how it goes."

Hunt then voted against the motion to support.

The Landy property is situated north of Toledo Terrace and just west of Northwestern High School.

Council members have several concerns about the project, which was approved in various revisions in 2001 and in 2007.

Councilmembers Nicole Hinds Mofor (Ward 5) and Carlos Lizanne (Ward 4) were absent from the meeting.