Published on: Wednesday, March 03, 2010

By Stephanie Gleason

Despite the many benefits the Purple Line could bring for Prince George’s County, Langley Park residents worry that the new development will mean increased cost of living and declining profits for small businesses in the community.

Governor Martin O’Malley announced his support for a light rail that would run from New Carrollton to Bethesda and is seeking $1.5 billion for it in federal funding.

His endorsed proposal contains two stops in Langley Park: one at the intersection of Riggs Road and University Blvd and the other at New Hampshire Ave and University Blvd. Langley Park sits on the edge of Prince George’s County, not far from the University of Maryland. While residents see the potential benefits the Purple Line could bring to the community, they also fear it could be badly hurt when rising prices force out the current residents.

Juan Lopez is a 10-year resident of Langley Park who spoke at a meeting advocating for a “fair Purple Line.” He said that residents are concerned about what the Purple Line will bring and whom it will really benefit. “This is a new opportunity of transportation for us,” Lopez said, but he added that most residents live on minimum wage and “we can’t even afford what we are paying now.” If new apartment buildings are built and Langley Park is redeveloped, many will not be able to afford to stay, he said.

“The development in transportation is great for the community, but there is a big, big problem,” said Astrid Noriega, a Langley Park small business owner. “The immigrants who live in Langley Park are our customers,” and if they are forced to move, the small businesses that depend on their patronage will have to move as well. “This development is going to be the crisis of everyone in the future.”

Many organizations, such as Jews United for Justice and Casa de Maryland, are concerned about how the Purple Line could affect Langley Park; nevertheless, they support the proposed plan.

“We are really strong supporters of the Purple Line,” said Josh Rosenthal, a representative from Jews United for Justice, an organization has been engaged in the issues surrounding Langley Park and the Purple Line. “But, as we started looking into it, we saw that there was a danger that many of the people that the Purple Line should help wouldn’t be able to see the benefits.” Rosenthal said the proposed Purple Line route was brought specifically through Langley Park, in part, because the people in the community would be able to benefit from this increased access to transit. “But, that doesn’t do Langley Park much good if the community that is in Langley Park now is scattered,” he said.

While Montgomery County has some strong policies in place to ensure affordable housing and mixed income communities, Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said Prince George’s County has no such policy.

“The plan calls for a lot of redevelopment, basically,” Cort said. However, “there really aren’t any policies in place that are addressing, clearly the very strong potential for displacement of people living in apartment buildings who are 40 to 50 years old, that are fairly affordable if you all get together and pay the rent.” While the Purple Line proposal does address the fact that help for small businesses and affordable housing are important, Cort said, “you can’t just go out and say ‘we’re so glad we’re getting all this transit in, let’s wipe out everything that exists here now and replace it with something else.’ You need to have some real policies in place, otherwise you’ll wipe out the place. It won’t be the same place anymore.”

One policy that could be enacted in Prince George’s County, Cort explained, would be one similar to that in Montgomery County. Montgomery “has a long been a practitioner of a policy that requires new development to include some more affordable housing, like a percentage.” The way it works is by providing some compensation to the developers for including some more affordable units that are integrated into the larger project.

Prince George’s County Councilmember, Will Campos, who represents Langley Park said that, although he is not an expert on mixed income community policies, he is aware that Casa de Maryland is putting together recommendations to include in the zoning plan.

“We aren’t going to pass the zoning until we have what the residents think it needs to say,” Campos said. But, he cautioned, “the fear that people have with this plan is that as soon as the sectional map goes through the development will come. The development can come now. They don’t need a sectional plan or a master plan. A developer can come in and do that now.” He added: “The master plan is basically a blue print of what we would like to see in the future. We obviously are going to take it into consideration.” They are trying to create a balance he said, but “There very well may be, because of the new development, some people who will move on. But we’re trying to be as fair as possible.”