By SHARON O’MALLEY
Serving on the College Park City Council “was somewhat different than I expected,” Stuart Adams, who represented District 3 from late 2021 until Jan. 8, recalled. “I will be candid about that. I thought it was a wonderful opportunity, but I’ll be honest, it was a lot of late nights, a lot of emails through the week.”
When he ran for re-election in 2023, he said, he didn’t realize his wife was expecting their second child or that the pregnancy, birth and first months of their new baby’s life would be so complicated.
So Adams, 38, whose council job is part time and who works full-time as an engineer, decided earlier this year that he would not seek re-election in November 2025.
But during a business trip before Thanksgiving, Adams found himself juggling day-job work with council business in a hotel room. “I thought to myself, ‘I’d rather worry about Facetiming my kids,’” he said.
So he decided to resign a few months early—perhaps in the spring. Then, when the holidays allowed him some time to reflect on his priorities, he turned in his resignation even earlier—just before Christmas, and left the council on Jan. 8.
“I just knew that my ability to dedicate the time that the council involved … was constrained,” he told College Park Here & Now.
Looking back, though, Adams said he did “everything I could to make sure I was available, make sure I was participatory. … I recognized my responsibilities had changed and that’s the primary reason for stepping back.”
The city will hold a special election to fill Adams’ seat, which represents College Park’s southernmost neighborhoods, including Yarrow, College Park Estates, Old Town and Calvert Hills, on March 11. Two candidates so far have announced they will run.
Adams joined the council in 2021 after unseating Councilmember Robert Day, who had served for a decade, by 35 votes. Adams represented District 3 alongside Councilmember John Rigg.
“Stuart brought a lot of creative and extremely helpful ideas to council,” Rigg, a councilmember for seven years, said of his colleague. “He’s very motivated to accomplish the things he set out to do. I can’t think of too many councilmembers, who in two-and-a-half years, have started as many conversations as he has.”
Adams led the conversation about vacant and blighted properties in College Park, which prompted the council to appoint a committee to recommend ways to encourage owners to maintain and fill their buildings. He was the architect of a pilot program to subsidize the rents of University of Maryland students living in Route 1 apartments.
Rigg said the subsidy “opened [councilmembers’] eyes and their hearts in considering students a part of the community more than they had.”
“It’s a loss for us,” College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said of Adams’ departure. “He’s very smart, he has done quite a bit of work, even though it’s been only three years now. … He asks good questions, really engages the staff and city council in the decision-making. And he offers some good suggestions.”
In Adams’ resignation letter, he asked the mayor, councilmembers and residents to “continue to push” a number of projects he has championed during his three years in office, including the Calvert Hills stormwater drainage project, affordable childcare and what he called “the fictitious north/south College Park divide,” noting, “We’re all in this together.”
Still, he said, “I don’t see any regrets.”
He recalled that he decided to run for office in 2021, in part, after opposing a University of Maryland plan to remove a substantial number of trees from the 15-acre Guilford Woods near UMD to make room for townhomes and graduate housing. Shortly after Adams joined the council, the effort prompted the university to scrap its plan.
“That was great,” he said.
He also said he is “proud of what we’ve been able to do” to promote affordable housing and food security with pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act funding from the federal government.
In an emotional farewell to his council colleagues on Jan. 7, Adams said they could expect to hear from him via email about issues on future agendas.
“I’ll watch more council meetings than the average resident,” he told College Park Here & Now, adding that he will offer himself as a resource to the candidate who wins his seat on March 11.
For now, though, Adams said, “I’ll get 10 to 20 hours a week back for me to have a decision on what to do. I’ll focus on family, I’ll focus on overall general health and wellness, and also participate in community events and other items as my time allows instead of that it’s something that I’m required to do.”
And he did not rule out a return to the dais in the future, once his children are older.
“I love being on council,” he said. “I’m bullish on the city of College Park.”
