Politics & Government
Plans for New Elementary School in Hyattsville Not Up To Snuff for City Council
Hyattsville unhappy with a school entrance planned for Nicholson Street.
A new elementary school planned for West Hyattsville has the city on its ear waiting for the county school system to entertain its concerns over traffic congestion, student safety and sustainability.
Plans for the school, which will be situated on property off Nicholson Street behind , include ingress and egress off Editor’s Park Drive to the north and Nicholson to the south.
Buses would use the north entrance while staff and parents would use the south.
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According to Paul Taylor, director of , a traffic study of the area concluded that all-way stop signs should be installed along Nicholson near the new school and two exit lanes—one for an east and one for a west turn—for parents who drop their kids off at the school.
“You’re going to create havoc over there,” said Councilwoman Paula Perry (Ward 4), at Taylor’s presentation before the council on April 11.
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Residents are opposed to having a driveway into the school off Nicholson Street because the road is unsafe, with drivers speeding and emergency vehicles using it to get to Ager Road, she said.
“It really needs to come off of Editor’s Park Drive,” she said.
PGCPS thought it would be awkward to have the school located on a road with no entrance, Taylor said.
The property will include fields from WMATA for recreation, Taylor said.
That left some council members wondering why the building couldn’t be moved further back into the property with the recreation fields being the buffer along Nicholson, solving the issue Taylor mentioned.
Changing the plans likely would involve a setback of at least a year and the possibility of losing funding for the project, Taylor said.
The city has been on record as opposed to the Nicholson entrance, Mayor William Gardiner said.
Councilman Marc Tartaro (Ward 1), an architect, said the configuration, including a small staff parking lot, wouldn’t work.
“Your drop off area is unbelievable,” he said.
Taylor said the school system realizes that cars would have to be queued up on Nicholson Street.
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