By GRIFFIN LIMERICK
The name seems harmless enough, even nondescript: the lower parcel.
But the plot of land next to Driskell Park has been a muddy battleground since 2017, when Werrlein Properties committed to buy the roughly 4.5-acre parking lot in the 100-year flood plain from Douglas Development Co., along with the 3.5-acre upper parcel on which the Suffrage Point townhouse development now sits.
More park at a price
At a rare lunchtime city council meeting on June 2, the debate drew nearer to its conclusion when the council voted 7-1, with two abstentions, to enter into a sales agreement to purchase the lower parcel — now to be incorporated into neighboring Driskell Park — for a price of $6.5 million. Councilmembers Eduoard Haba (Ward 4) and Danny Schaible (Ward 2) were the two abstentions, with Sam Denes (Ward 1) providing the lone “no” vote — his last vote with the city council.
Much of the debate at recent council meetings has stemmed from the price that the city has proposed paying for the property. At the May 19 council meeting, City Administrator Tracey Douglas said that the city had negotiated the lower parcel price down to $7.5 million from the $10.8 million Werrlein proposed last year.
During the public comment period before the May 19 meeting, residents argued that the price was significantly higher than what the land was worth, and that the city would essentially be rewarding Werrlein for intentionally misusing the property these last eight years, including developing the land without required permits.
“I find it galling that we would consider bailing out the developers who have not shown that they are capable of being good stewards of that land,” said Ward 1 resident Sean Carlson. “The taxpayers are going to be on the hook for fixing the problem that the developers caused in the first place.”
The former Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) property sits in the Northwest Branch flood plain, meaning several environmental permits are required for construction. Werrlein has been involved in litigation for its intent to build on the land since 2017 and currently possesses none of the three county land-use permits — nor any of the state or federal environmental permits — required to do so, according to Councilmember Schaible.
The deals that might have been
At the May 19 council meeting, both City Administrator Douglas and Mayor Robert Croslin provided histories of the property and the city’s previous attempts to purchase it. Douglas Development offered both the upper and lower parcels to the City of Hyattsville in 2017 for the price of $7.5 million. After the city declined, Douglas Development sold the property for $4.4 million to Werrlein (the official deed lists the sale date as July 2019), who began developing the upper parcel into Suffrage Point.
Douglas said that Werrlein offered 1.8 acres of the 4.5-acre lower parcel to the city in 2018 for $250,000, but the city once again declined. That parcel included land on the edge of the parking lot that the city had maintained as a park for decades, as well as a big new retention pond. Croslin said the city had initially inquired about purchasing the entire lower lot that year, but had been quoted the price of $3.9 million by Werrlein, and so had shifted its focus toward only purchasing part of it.
Councilmember Haba said at the May 19 council meeting that, with the new proposed asking price of $7.5 million for the lower lot, the city had come full circle to the original asking price it didn’t want to pay Douglas Development for both lots in 2017, and that the city had “missed the opportunity.”
“Personally, it’s going to be very difficult for me to support the purchase at this time, of this lot, at that cost,” Haba said.
Developer expenses become taxpayer costs
Douglas said at the May 19 meeting that the price of the lower parcel has increased “because of what [Werrlein] have identified as sunk costs and work that they have done on the site.”
Councilmember Schaible countered that, beyond removing the WSSC parking lot from the property, Werrlein’s construction work and sunk costs seemed minimal.
At the June 2 meeting, Werrlein Vice President of Builders Karl Granzow presented a list of expenses from the past seven years, including the price of demolishing the WSSC building on the upper lot, which Werrlein completed in July 2019 with an expired raze permit; the company has since sold 15 homes on the lot for $1 million or more each, and a number of townhouses priced around $750,000. Granzow also listed legal fees, permitting and closing costs that he sought to have reimbursed by taxpayers.
Reinforced concrete pipes are stacked on the lower lot, and need to be installed, according to Director of Public Works Lesley Riddle. She added that the temporary stormwater mitigation in place for the construction on the upper lot needs to be improved or removed, and that the two mounds of soil currently kept on the lot as infill to raise the site out of the flood plain need to be graded or removed. At the May 19 meeting, she estimated the cost of these measures at around $1 million, in addition to the then-$7.5 million purchase price.
The $6.5 million deal approved at the June 2 council meeting requires Werrlein to undertake the $1 million in land and stormwater improvements. The company has agreed to conduct a site survey and soil test, remove the temporary sediment trap, grade the lot, and install a stormwater drain that connects to the upper parcel one.
County property tax records place the value of the property at $364,000. Werrlein’s appraisal of the property, completed in February 2024 and acquired by the Life & Times, values the property as-is at $3.3 million. With development of the lots, including stormwater mitigation, that value rises to $5.4 million. Both numbers are significantly lower than the $6.5 million the city now proposes paying Werrlein.
State open space funding to support purchase
At the May 19 council meeting, Croslin informed the council that the purchase price would be cut nearly in half by a grant the city had received from the Maryland General Assembly, money allotted from the state’s two-year-old Greenspace Equity Program. Croslin used the grant to argue that the city would ultimately be paying no more than the 2018 quoted price of roughly $3.9 million for the parcel after the grant was applied.
“The state has given us a reimbursement of $3.5 million,” he said, “which brings that number down to where we started.”
When asked by Councilmember Redmond who had asked state legislators for the grant, Croslin informed the council that he himself had.
At the June 2 meeting, Council President Joseph Solomon (Ward 5) read aloud the terms of the agreement with Werrlein, which included two independent appraisals of the property. City Planner Jeff Ulysse said that two appraisals were required by the state for the grant. When Schaible inquired whether the grant’s contingency of having the appraisals done meant that the purchase price had to match the appraisal, Ulysse was noncommittal.
“The appraisals provide some context,” Ulysse said. “The grant program is a review process. However, I’ve been in conversations with the grant administrators, and they are ready to go.”
Croslin added that “the value of the property itself is what the community wants,” and Solomon reminded everyone that it was 1:59 p.m., that some councilmembers had to leave at 2 p.m., and that the council should hurry up with the vote.
According to the Green Equity Program Application from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, two independent appraisals of the property must be completed before the application can be submitted. However, page 88 of the 2025 state budget bill (HB 340/SB 319) says the $3.5 million “may not be expended for [the purpose of the Greenspace Equity Program] but instead may be used only to provide a grant to the City of Hyattsville to purchase property for a park,” implying that the city was awarded the money without having to follow the traditional application process.
The council completes the vote
At the May 19 council meeting, Croslin, Solomon, and Douglas confirmed that the driving force behind the expedited vote was an attempt to finalize the purchase of the lower parcel before the new city councilmembers, elected May 13, are onboarded, potentially prolonging the process.
“This council has been dealing with this issue, and we have discussed it at length over the course of the last couple of years,” Douglas said at the May 19 meeting. “So my recommendation was that we bring this back because we now have an offer, and that we bring this back and allow me to continue negotiating, with a council that’s already familiar with this.”
At the June 2 council meeting, Ulysse stated that the vote was merely for moving forward with the newly agreed-upon terms — not for the final purchase of the lot — and that the price could still be negotiated. Croslin himself admitted that the “the next council will have an opportunity to be a part of this.”
At that same meeting, Denes said he didn’t see the urgency in the vote and motioned to table the item, but ultimately the council voted not to do so. Councilmembers Denes, Schaible and Strab voted in favor of tabling it, while the remaining councilmembers and the mayor (7 votes in total) voted not to.
The meeting ended with a roll call vote to adopt the new purchase agreement. As of press time, according to Brooks, the city plans to take on short-term debt to buy the property. Brooks said the city is looking to pay as little interest as possible.
