College Park City Council members have been known to compare the university to an 800-pound gorilla who can bully its way to what it wants.

But on Wednesday night, they finally had some leverage over the beast.

University officials tried to convince a somewhat skeptical city council to release $5 million in state funds for the East Campus development Wednesday night. Council members took the opportunity to air gripes both new and old with the university.

Last year, the General Assembly allocated $5 million to the university to pay for East Campus relocation costs but attached strings requiring the city’s permission before the university can spend the cash. The legislation has created a rare situation of power for the city council, whose budget and influence are dwarfed by the university’s. The council will vote next week on whether to approve the $5 million, which will pay for the relocation of university facilities to the site of the recently purchased Washington Post Company plant. The state legislature may appropriate another $5 million this year with similar conditions.

Before allowing the university to go forward with construction on the $900 million development that officials say will reshape College Park by adding housing and retail, council members wanted university officials to address concerns on everything from traffic to a lack of input in university actions. For the most part, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie was able to assuage them.

“I thought it was positive,” she said of the discussion. “I hope that it helped. We want the city to know that we appreciate their support.”

The immediate concern was traffic. The city council worried an influx of the university’s “white trucks” would cause gridlock near the old printing plant, which is located off of Greenbelt Road. The fears were calmed after Wylie submitted an analysis of traffic patterns showing the impact would be minimal.

The university purchased the printing plant this year over the objections of some council members, who worried about a loss in property tax revenue. Eventually, the university agreed to pay the city about $260,000 a year in lieu of taxes.

District 3 Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich attacked the university’s decision to undertake a third party study charting the economic impact the city and university have on one another.

“Frankly, quite a few people think that the motivation for the study is to show that the university has more cost benefits for the city than costs,” she said. “If there are costs and benefits that you can’t quantify, I think they won’t really get taken into consideration.”

Wylie defended the study in progress and said city concerns would be considered.

Stullich was unconvinced.

“I don’t think they really heard [our concerns],” she said. “I’m just very troubled by them pursuing this study.”

District 4 Councilwoman Denise Mitchell was concerned that the university seemed to take action first and then retroactively ask the city for its input. District 2 Councilman Jack Perry, a staunch fiscal conservative, questioned the development as a whole.

“I’m still trying to figure out how the scholarship [of the university] advances with this type of development,” he said.

Wylie said surveys asking potential faculty and students why this university wasn’t their first choice showed location as a frequent answer. She said a lack of quality businesses downtown and on Route 1 were main contributors and argued the East Campus development would make the city a more desirable place to live and learn.

“I know that if we keep faculty in the community we will enrich the intellectual life on our campus because they will be there more and they will be engaged more,” Wylie said. “The more people that are here, live here, work here, are on our streets and stay in the community increase the safety of the area.”

Mayor Andrew Fellows was optimistic that the dialogue provided some closure.

“They’re so much of what we do here,” he said of the university. “For years we’ve made impasses … but to succeed together is really the mutual goal. And it feels like we’re making progress.”

rhodes@umdbk.com