By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Nearly 30 years after developer Kingdon Gould Jr. purchased a sand and gravel pit with dreams of creating a mini-city in the northern tip of Prince George's County, his family is inching closer to building one of the Washington region's most ambitious projects on the property.
Think National Harbor -- minus the waterfront, but bigger, and more expensive. The Prince George's County Planning Board recently approved preliminary plans for Konterra Town Center East, a nearly 500-acre development that will consist of 4,500 residential units and 5.9 million square feet of commercial, retail and office space near the intercounty connector in Laurel. The board is expected to consider detailed site plans this fall for the project, which requires the approval of Prince George's County Council s before construction can begin.
The developers plan to break ground on the town center next year or in 2010 and expect the project to be completed in 12 to 20 years.
Similar to National Harbor, county officials said Konterra is the type of project that helps put Prince George's on the map and squash perceptions that the county is unable to attract big business, high-end retail and restaurants.
The multibillion-dollar town center, with offices, condos, upscale shops, restaurants and outdoor plazas, will be the anchor of Konterra, a 2,200-acre project that surpasses the size of Tysons Corner, which is on 1,700 acres.
Caleb Gould, Kingdon Gould Jr.'s son who is running the project, said he is glad that the first phase of development is underway.
"It's important to us," Caleb Gould said. "We've lived here for fairly a long time, and we want to embellish the community."
"This continues to take Prince George's County to another level," David Byrd, the county's deputy chief administrative officer for economic development, said of Konterra.
Planning officials said Konterra uses a new urbanism zoning concept, which retools land-use plans so that office and retail space, housing and restaurants can be grouped into single communities.
"The Konterra Town Center offers the kind of density and diversity that is critical to the future of the county," Planning Board Chairman Samuel J. Parker Jr. said.
The town center stands in stark contrast to the type of projects that have been built in the county during the last few decades. In the 1960s, a building boom resulted in clusters of garden apartments, mostly located inside the Capital Beltway. During the next 20 years, as renters began to buy their first homes, developers built low-cost houses in the county. Townhouses followed. By the 1990s, there was a push for estate housing.
"Prince George's is known as a suburban bedroom community, but we need more urban dense living," Parker said. He said he hoped that the town center model would be replicated, in smaller fashion, around some of the county's metro stations.
County officials said such projects as Konterra and National Harbor will make the county attractive to employers, young professionals and empty nesters, who like an urban style of living. The idea to build Konterra, which includes a small slice of land in Montgomery County, came to Kingdon Gould Jr. during his commute from his Howard County house to his District office.
Gould snatched up the largest undeveloped tract of land along the Baltimore-Washington corridor during a foreclosure sale in 1981. After family discussions around the dinner table, the family came up with Konterra by combining the name of the former landowners, Contee Sand and Gravel, with terra, the Latin word for earth.
"The 'k' is for Kingdon," Caleb Gould said in a recent interview. "But not for him," he added, teasing and pointing at his older brother Kingdon Gould III sitting across from him. Instead, it was for Kingdon Gould Jr., who is the former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and the great-grandson of railroad financier Jay Gould.
Caleb Gould said his father originally used James Rouse's design for Columbia as a model for Konterra with some changes. Konterra Town Center East will resemble the town centers in Reston and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., pedestrian-friendly developments where the "live, work and dine" theme has been successful.
"I know they seem to be buzz words," said Deborah Ratner Salzberg, director of Forest City Enterprises, which has partnered with Konterra Realty on the project, of the theme. "But that is what it will be."
For years, many residents have had mixed reactions to the project.
Some were adamantly opposed, anxious that thousands of new residents, workers and shoppers making their way into the area would destroy their community's rural landscape.
"This place is not ever going to be the same again," said Gerry Caulk, who lives just over the Prince George's County line in Burtonsville. Caulk said her road is already congested, and Konterra and the ICC are not even built yet.
"They want to build thousands of dwelling units on the other side of the road that is not able to handle it," said Dennis Cook, zoning officer for the West Laurel Civic Association. "Where are all those cars going to go?"
Despite his question, Cook said he isn't against Gould's plans for the land. "What was there wasn't great, either," he said referring to the gravel pit. "We just want to see a balanced community. . . . In the early planning process, they were talking about doing a good, balanced community with as many jobs as housing units. . . . The last thing I saw was a little bit imbalanced."
Still, Cook said, most residents are resigned to the project, despite their concerns. There was no opposition expressed during the last two public hearings before the planning board.
"I think the essence of the project was fought decades ago," said Mary Lehman, president of the West Laurel Civic Association. "Now we are looking to do what we can to mitigate the effects on the quality of life."
Lehman said residents will keep a close eye on the details of the plan, which will be revealed in the fall.
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