By KIT SLACK
March 12, the Prince George’s County Council disapproved a plan to develop 41 townhouses on the vacant lot between Hamilton St and Driskell Park in Hyattsville.
Wanika Fisher, the county council member who represents District 2, which includes Hyattsville, said she recommended disapproval because of the density of the townhouses on the lot.
She also raised a procedural issue involving time elapsed following a court remand concerning that density.
The county council, sitting as the district council, passed Fisher’s motion to disapprove the development 8-0.
It is customary for the district council to vote with the representative in whose district a development is planned: in this case, Fisher.
Mel Franklin, one of two at-large council members, made the only comment on the motion, voicing some disagreement, and saying he was voting with Fisher for the purpose of sending the dispute back to the courts.
The town house development plan is a detailed site plan, listed as DSP 21001 in county planning records, for the lower lot of the Suffrage Point development, formerly called Magruder Pointe.
The upper lot of Suffrage Point, between Hamilton and Gallatin, has been redeveloped over the past few years with 16 houses and 15 town houses.
At a district council meeting on Dec. 11, staff from the City of Hyattsville as well as Greg Smith from the organization Save Our Sustainable Hyattsville and Janet Gingold from the Sierra Club raised objections to the development on environmental grounds.
Much of the 4.6 acre site was in a 100-year flood plain, though infrastructure work at the site has sought to change that.
A large water retention pond has also been built on the site.
