Discord at Wilmer's Isn't About the Music

Proposal to Redevelop Once-Popular Venue Irks Some Brandywine Residents

In its heyday, as many as 20,000 people crowded wooden bleachers on a hillside at Wilmer's Park in southern Prince George's County to hear the era's most popular black entertainers.

The 80-acre site in Brandywine, a few miles from the Charles County border, was one of a string of East Coast venues that made up what was often called the "Chitlin Circuit." In its dance hall and amphitheater, black musicians and audiences found refuge from Jim Crow discrimination in the 1950s and '60s.

"When they had major stars, there would be so many people that everyone couldn't get inside the hall," said Herman Windsor, 65, a farmer whose family has lived in the Croom area for more than 100 years. "You'd have people flowing out of the building."

Now a developer has a proposal to revive the musical tradition of Wilmer's Park. Bruce Chatman, a former IBM executive, wants to remove the dilapidated structures on the site and build a 5,000- to 6,000-seat theater, along with a restaurant and a cultural heritage museum.

But his plan also calls for a 500-unit condominium community for people 55 and older, a church, a shopping center, a nightclub, a hotel and recreational facilities. Some Brandywine residents contend that development of that size and density is out of character with the rural surroundings.

"I realize so much has been lost," said Chatman, who bought the site in 2003. "I have a strong affinity for trying to save that part of our cultural heritage."

Chatman's property is zoned for open space, which permits one house per five acres but virtually no commercial development. Rather than apply for a change in the zoning, Chatman has asked the County Council to establish a special exception for a "rural entertainment park" that promotes "an important cultural or historical theme."

A bill to create the exception has cleared a council committee. If the full council approves the measure, Chatman still faces a months-long process in which a zoning hearing examiner considers his application before the council decides whether to grant him an exception for the development he envisions.

The project's critics say the bill would open up the county's least-developed area to sprawl. They say the park's history is being exploited to wedge houses and stores into a rural site set aside for open space. And they say the legislation is being rushed through the council -- with too little opportunity for public review -- by a member who has received campaign contributions from the developer.

"It's not returning the heritage, and it's not celebrating its history," said Kelly Canavan, president of the Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council, a group formed to slow development. "It's using that as an excuse to completely redevelop in a way that's totally incongruent with what else is in that area."

Canavan and other critics insist that the development, off narrow Brandywine Road and about four miles west of Route 301, is not suited to a rural area with minimal public transit. They say it would tie up local roads and be out of character with nearby farms and forests.

But Chatman said the project depends on including profitable development along with the concert hall. He said he was not able to obtain financing for a music venue alone. Chatman estimates that the project will cost $120 million to $200 million.