University President Dan Mote rankled most of the College Park City Council on Tuesday, as a letter pledging renewed university support for a road that would connect Comcast Center to the Capital Beltway was chastised by council members.
Mote’s letter came after the council asked university officials for a letter detailing their support for Route 1 redevelopment, but in an odd twist, it actually succeeded more at inflaming tensions between council members than soothing differences over town development.
The proposed connector road is what Mote has described as the primary solution to ease the grinding commute many university staff and students face on Route 1 each day. But because the road could cut into federally owned green space and the College Park Woods community, most area residents and legislators stand in opposition. Council members also contend funding for the project would detract from Route 1 redevelopment, which they consider a priority.
In the letter, addressed to Maryland Secretary of Transportation Robert L. Flanagan, Mote pledges support for what could be the first phase of Route 1 redevelopment – beginning at College Avenue and ending at University Boulevard. But in the same letter, he takes a swipe at Route 1 redevelopment in writing, “[the] project does not provide the critically needed capacity improvements for access to and from the state’s flagship university.”
Councilwoman Joseline Peña-Melnyk, a key opponent of the connector road who represents the district the road could cut through, called Mote’s letter “highly offensive” and akin to “punching the person in the face,” leading her to ask, “When does the university respect the community?”
“The letter from the University of Maryland was not a letter that said, ‘Listen State Highway Administration, we are supporters of College Park, and what they have decided to do is the right thing to do; let’s get this ball rolling,'” said Peña-Melnyk, who led a march up Route 1 last October to draw attention to the redevelopment. “Instead what they did was the following: They wrote a letter; the letter said ‘Yes, we are supporters of the phasing; however, you might want to consider this way of doing it,’ and changed it.”
Mote’s letter further states that developing an even smaller section of the proposed road, College Avenue north to Paint Branch Parkway – the area immediately in front of the entrance – would be their “highest priority.” That plan, College Park mayor Stephen Brayman said, would ignore the challenges in other communities.
“The university identified in their letter, their highest priority would only be in front of the university from College Avenue to Paint Branch, not taking care of any of the current situation that Lakeland and Berwyn are faced with,” Brayman said.
The connector road is still in a study phase that will determine environmental impact, Flanagan wrote in a reply, and would not advance to the next stage until mid-2009. But with changing leadership in Annapolis, it’s still unclear how viable the connector road would be, or how the university could muster support to push the plan forward.
A key vocal supporter of the road in Annapolis was District 21 state Sen. John Giannetti (R-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), who was defeated by former regent Jim Rosapepe in November’s general election. Del. Barbara Frush, a returning member of Giannetti’s former delegation, said in an interview that the connector road’s support, at least legislative, could be tempered for now.
She noted, however, that university officials such as Vice President of Administrative Affairs John Porcari, who was secretary of transportation under former Gov. Parris Glendening, didn’t completely shelve a project like the connector road.
“The ramification [of Giannetti’s removal] should be that it’s taken off the table as far as I am concerned,” Frush said. “Factually, there is a good chance that someone like John Porcari could be named Secretary of Transportation for the State of Maryland. For me to say it’s not going to happen, which I’d love to say right now, I just can’t.”
Frush did say, however, that while the university has significant lobbying power in Annapolis, all of their wants aren’t granted.
“They carry a great deal of weight as far as making decisions go, but by the same token it’s a give-and-take,” Frush said. “The university can be right just as it can be wrong, so they don’t get everything they ask for.”
Both Peña-Melnyk and District 1 Councilman Dave Milligan said at the meeting that the university ought to put more focus on the proposed Metro Purple Line, public transportation and developing Route 1 as methods to ease the traffic congestion.
“If the university were to put as much work in lobbying behind Route 1 and behind the Purple Line, trust me, it would already have been funded,” Peña-Melnyk said.
Using public transportation services is “the way a smart university, inside the Beltway, addresses these kind of problems,” Milligan added at the meeting.
Rosapepe and Porcari did not return calls for comment by press time yesterday.
Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com.
