FOR YEARS, residents of Prince George’s County have lamented the shortage of high-end local shopping and dining venues, complaining that developers and investors favored swankier precincts in the District and Montgomery and Fairfax counties. Now a reputable developer has proposed exactly the kind of project that much of Prince George’s has lacked — upscale stores, restaurants, townhouses, apartments, offices, a hotel, and a gigantic fitness center, all anchored by what would be the first Whole Foods grocery store in the county of 870,000 people.
The 36-acre project, proposed by the Cafritz Company, would bring huge benefits to the urbanizing Route 1 corridor near the University of Maryland at College Park, where it would be located on a site that housed factory workers during World War II. It would represent a major gain for the county, which needs to broaden its tax base and burnish its scandal-marred reputation. And it would be a magnet for thousands of Prince Georgians wanting to shop, eat and recreate much closer to home, saving them long drives to neighboring jurisdictions.
So far, though, the loudest community voices are rising in opposition to the project, warning of traffic, overcrowding and the risk to existing shops and businesses.
The objections are predictable; they’re also wrongheaded. They ignore the experience of other close-in suburbs in the region — think of Arlington and Bethesda — that have added dynamic commercial centers without adverse impact on established residential neighborhoods. They disregard the fact that the location of the proposed project — inside the Beltway, close to a Metro station and barely eight miles from Capitol Hill — would attract just the sort of well-educated and relatively affluent residents who can support businesses and amenities such as those Cafritz envisions. And they are heedless of what has become known nationally as the Whole Foods Effect — the grocery chain’s potential as a catalyst for redevelopment and higher property values.
Most of all, the doubters forget that Cafritz, which has owned the land for decades, already has zoning approval to build at least 250 single-family homes there. Doing so would only weigh on Prince George’s County’s finances — since schoolchildren living in houses cost more to educate than their parents pay in taxes — while adding no community amenities and nothing to the county’s commercial tax base.
True, the Cafritz project is likely to generate traffic in the immediate area, although many drivers may be able to reduce their overall travel for shopping. But steps could be taken to ease the traffic impact, including adding turning lanes and building an overpass above an adjacent rail line so cars can come and go without clogging Route 1. Yes, the proposal for nearly 1,000 housing units at the site may be more than the area can absorb, but Cafritz has signaled that the number is negotiable.
The proposal has divided neighbors and local elected officials, but even opponents acknowledge that there would be a tremendous demand for Whole Foods and other new businesses. That is confirmation that as things stand now, the area’s residents and shoppers are badly underserved by existing local businesses.
It’s a cop-out to say, as some opponents have, that the Cafritz proposal is the right development in the wrong place — as if by killing the plan at this location, it might be magically reinvented somewhere else. Local officials should negotiate, push for modifications and take community concerns into account. In the end, it would be a grave mistake for the county to turn its back on precisely the sort of progress so many county residents say they want.
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