Today’s Staff Editorial
Stories of black mold, flimsy locks and neighborhood crime are but a few of the negative associations the Knox Boxes have garnered over the years. For all their flaws, these apartments have nonetheless remained a popular destination for both the party-oriented as well as cost-conscious students who enjoy living close to the campus. Living in a “box” may lack glamour, but it’s practical — and frankly, the convenient location has proven enough to entice tenants.
But as most safety-concerned parents would agree, location isn’t enough — this city can do better than notoriously unsightly apartment complexes. And developers appear intent on proving just that.
On April 16, the College Park City Council heard preliminary plans from the Toll Brothers development company on its proposed Knox Village project. Under the current plans, developers would raze the current Knox Boxes to the ground. In their stead, Knox Village would host outdoor recreation areas, a parking garage and retail spaces to accompany the 1,500 additional beds that would house students in the land between Knox Road and Guilford Drive.
Current plans suggest construction could be completed as soon as 2016, though this goal seems unlikely based on the extensive delays other projects such as the Maryland Book Exchange and East Campus development have succumbed to in the past. Like any massive project, these plans are bound to draw concerns and experience hiccups. But after what this editorial board has seen from the current proposals, students and community members alike should embrace the potential Knox Village development.
To be clear, we hope this project, along with the Maryland Book Exchange apartment project, would conclude the rapid increase in off-campus housing that has transformed the city since 2005. Though The Enclave, Mazza Grandmarc, University View I and II and The Varsity apartment property owners have said they’ve collectively maintained occupancy rates near 95 percent as recently as 2012, any further developments would threaten to saturate the market for off-campus housing. Yet, as a Knox Village development would replace preexisting, suboptimal housing, this editorial board finds it pertinent the city approves some iteration of the current proposal.
As we’ve stated previously, improving retail space and amenities in the downtown area is the next logical step for city planners, but for the time being, one thing is clear: Any effort to infuse life into the city would suffer from rejecting a Knox Village proposal.
Students deserve high-quality and safe living quarters, and living in secure apartment buildings is the least developers can provide. Despite what city council members or Old Town residents may fear, replacing the Knox Boxes wouldn’t dramatically alter the flow of partying students toward residential areas. If anything, it would help isolate student disturbances to within Knox Village — a far easier area to monitor and ensure student safety in. Plus, the middle-of-the-road pricing would be a crucial alternative to the more exorbitant high-rise apartments built in the past few years.
More work can be done to improve the current proposal, including supporting student aspirations to dedicate retail space toward a grocery store. The 1,200 square feet allocated toward retail in the current proposal doesn’t leave room for a legitimate grocery option, and we hope the developers at Toll Brothers will take this concern into account with any future modifications to the plan. If Knox Village fails to feature a grocery store — and it likely won’t — students will have to wait to see if university and city officials can follow through on delivering a grocery store closer to Route 1 after the Cafritz development stalled.
Even without a grocery store, and despite the years worth of construction inconveniences students may face, College Park would simply be a better place if Knox Village replaced the Knox Boxes.
