Planners Vote Down Rosaryville Project

Effects on Traffic, Environment Weighed

The Prince George's County Planning Board voted against a 409-unit community in Rosaryville last week, raising questions about the proposed development's impact on traffic and the environment and historic artifacts that might be on the site.

The 4 to 1 vote marks a setback in plans to develop the 343 acres of farmland and forest along Frank Tippett Road, a project that has been revamped several times since it was proposed nearly two decades ago.

Members of the Planning Board voted against the proposal because numerous impact studies had not been conducted. Board member Sylvester J. Vaughns was not present for the vote.

"It seems as if this process is moving ahead without the proper analysis that we, the board, want to view," Chairman Samuel J. Parker Jr said. "We want to approve things we think are the best, and right now the information we need to make that decision, I don't see it."

One major point of contention involves nearly nine acres of trees in one corner of the property that developers want to cut down. County environmental planners say the area is ecologically significant and should be preserved.

Jim Stasz, an environmental planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission who reviewed the proposal, said the stand of trees was rare because it appeared not to have experienced the same cycle of logging and growth as most forested areas in that part of the county.

"We cannot re-create ecosystems that have been there for centuries," Stasz said.

But Mark Ferguson, who works for Upper Marlboro-based RDA Engineering, said the plan is environmentally friendly because it calls for keeping 122 acres -- or about one-third of the land -- undeveloped, including small wetlands and the critical natural areas that buffer the handful of creeks running through the parcel. The site plan also calls for a network of horse trails and a large park for recreation.

"It's a balance of unusual demands on the property, coming from the goal of maintaining the property for horse trails, the community's goal of maintaining a park and the goal of protecting the environment. Ultimately, we have done the best we can to fulfill all of those requirements," Ferguson said.

County planners said that a mandatory archaeological survey of the site has not been conducted and that a traffic study needs to be updated to accommodate a day-care center the developers are building on the property.

The archaeological study is important because there are numerous historic houses on nearby properties, planner say. Such surveys are required to avoid destroying items of historical significance during development.

"The likelihood an 18th-century site is on this property is pretty high, and because of the presence of a streambed, the likelihood of a prehistoric site on this property is pretty high," said Jennifer Stabler, a county archaeological planner.

Developers could respond to the decision by asking county planners to reconsider their application, appealing the decision to the Circuit Court or filing a new application, said Ferguson, a planning consultant for the land owner, Transnational Law and Business University Foundation, a South Korean nonprofit educational organization. Ferguson and Transnational's law and engineering firms represented the organization at the hearing.

Transnational received basic approval in 1990 for a housing development of more than 500 units before receiving approval in 2000 for a university. With neither of those projects getting off the ground, owners have switched their focus back to housing.

Barry Schlossberg, president of the nearby Brookwood-Holloway Civic Association, said he does not oppose the project but stressed that proper upgrades must be made to roads, schools and public safety services first.

"We need to get the infrastructure in before we start putting these developments in," said Schlossberg, who has monitored the property since 1990 and said he thinks the development will be built.

Schlossberg said he and leaders from nearby communities have been speaking with the project developers about a shared goal of working with the county to build a community center at the site, which he said the area needs.