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Hyattsville residents voice continuing concerns about proposed rezoning of Queens Chapel neighborhood

Posted on: October 20, 2024

By ETHAN THERRIEN

The Queens Chapel Manor neighborhood between the West Hyattsville Metro and Hyattsville Crossing Station.

A number of Hyattsville residents expressed their opposition to one contentious aspect of the proposed West Hyattsville-Queens Chapel Sector Plan during an Oct. 1 Prince George’s County Council joint public hearing — a formal event designed for the public to share their thoughts on the rezoning of the Queen’s Chapel Manor neighborhood.

(The Life & Times has reported on earlier stages of the West Hyattsville-Queens Chapel Sector planning here and here, and provided coverage of two June in-person open houses here.)

The proposed rezoning of the Queen’s Chapel Manor neighborhood between Hyattsville Crossing Station and West Hyattsville Station would allow for single-family attached homes, such as duplexes and triplexes, in addition to detached, free-standing single-family homes according to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Prince George’s County Planning Department members at the Oct. 1 meeting. (County planning staff have previously asserted that owners of individual single-family homes can choose to keep their homes intact.)

The rezoning would encourage more families with children to move to the area, according to county planning staff, who also assert that the increased population density would increase walkability between the two stations.

However, not everyone is on board with the idea, and several Hyattsville residents spoke out against the rezoning at the Oct. 1 meeting. Alan Jones, a resident of Queen’s Chapel Manor neighborhood, described the proposed plan as “the most insane thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“You’re gonna have to have all the street’s sidewalks torn up to put in new gas lines and new power lines and new everything,” Jones said. “You talk about more parks and stuff. Where are you gonna put it? You know, destroy homes to put it down, but to put in multiple family housing on a single lot is really ridiculous.”

Jones’ sentiments were echoed by other speakers during the meeting. Hyattsville resident Shea Winsett voiced her concerns about the repercussions that increased population density would have on the broader community. 

“You have more people and density in the area,” she said. In regards to that increased population leading to more children in the area, Winsett said, “Do we wait until you have a school that the ceiling is caving in and there are already 35 or 36 students inside of a classroom before you pass another bill that takes another 10 years?”

Winsett added that Hyattsville doesn’t need to be constructed like a major city. 

“Hyattsville is not D.C. It wasn’t built to be D.C.,” she said. “It’s supposed to be exactly the town that it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be popping and locking and everybody coming in and out.” 

Several speakers cited concerns about equitability; for example, one speaker asked why the county was planning to only increase the zoning density of the Queen’s Chapel Manor neighborhood and not other neighborhoods, as well. 

Winsett, who grew up on Hamilton Street, suggested that the additional bike lanes proposed in the plan would lead to increased traffic congestion in the area, which she said is already heavy to begin with.

“The traffic there is horrendous,” Winsett said. “If you include bike lanes, which is fine to a certain degree, the people who live within the neighborhood of Hyattsville have cars. Lots of cars. A lot of those are work vans, because they’re working people. If you take up that parking to put another bike lane for people who just like to bike because it seems like a good idea for the environment, where are they [the bike lanes] going to go?”

Following residents’ critiques and comments, the meeting was adjourned. According to County Council Chair Jolene Ivey, the planning department will conduct a work session to review the testimony given during the hearing.

Depending on the session results, the department will then either adopt the plan with amendments from the testimony, remand the plan back to the planning director for further evaluation, or disapprove the plan, according to Ivey.

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Ethan Therrien is an undergraduate journalism student at the University of Maryland.

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