The Prince George’s County Planning Board released the third draft of the West Hyattsville-Queens Chapel Sector Plan this spring, aiming to set a 25-year vision for housing, transportation and development around the West Hyattsville and Hyattsville Crossing Metro stations.
But for some residents, the newest draft raises more questions than answers, reigniting concerns about how community voices are being included in the conversation.
Approved for public release in April, the draft expands zoning changes to promote “missing middle” housing, encourages growth near Metro transit hubs and scales back environmental protections included in earlier versions. The Sectional Map Amendment tied to the plan proposes 38 zoning changes meant to bring zoning in line with the county’s long-term land-use goals. One of the biggest changes would rezone 1,455 lots from RSF-65, which allows only single-family homes, to RSF-A, which permits attached housing like townhouses and duplexes on lots as small as 5,000 square feet.
According to planning board materials, the third draft increases the RSF-A zone by over 200 acres and reduces the RSF-65 zone by more than 250 acres. It also scales back earlier proposals to protect flood plain areas and introduces new zoning overlays near transit and commercial corridors, such as Chillum Road.
Hyattsville resident Daniel Broder submitted detailed written testimony after the county council announced they were accepting public comments via a portal until July 21, outlining implementation gaps in the plan, particularly around housing affordability, environmental risks and flood plain development.
“My motivation is that the inclination of developers and governance bodies in [Prince George’s] County is to haphazardly build gentrifying developments without any consideration for the environment, green spaces, the utilization of public transit and affordable housing,” Broder wrote.
He pointed out that while the second draft of the plan had proposed a ban on flood plain development, the third draft removed that ban entirely. A provision that would have required the county to acquire properties in the Northwest Branch flood plain for green space was also dropped due to “cost and time.”
Broder urged the county to at least prohibit redevelopment along the Chillum Road streambank, where runoff and flooding have long been a concern.
“I hope this plan will learn from the mistakes and lack of execution in other sector plans,” he wrote. “Our communities are often reflective of our values. I want to see my children (and others) grow up in a community that reflects their value to our world.”
The surprise inclusion of Avondale — a group of unincorporated communities spanning Queens Chapel Road, west of Mount Rainier, and bordered by the Northwest Branch and Eastern Avenue — in the third draft has also become a flashpoint for residents who say they were excluded from the planning process.
“We, the Avondale/North Woodridge Community, wholeheartedly oppose this rezoning,” wrote Pat Padua, president of the Avondale/North Woodridge Citizens Association, in a statement submitted to the planning board. “This will irreparably alter the character of our community.”
The first two drafts hadn’t proposed any policy changes that affected the Avondale neighborhoods. But after the October 2024 public hearing, zoning changes in Avondale and North Woodridge appeared, without explanation, in the new rezoning map.
“That was the first we’d heard about it,” Padua said. “No one from the neighborhood that we know of had asked to be added.”
Many Avondale residents said they didn’t even know about the rezoning until a letter showed up in mailboxes around May 12, giving just a few weeks’ notice ahead of the July 1 hearing at which the county council discussed the third draft. Padua and others tried to get answers quickly, meeting with county planning department staff twice before the hearing. But residents said no one could explain how or why Avondale ended up in the plan.
Beyond the planning process itself, Padua also raised concerns about the destruction of the character of the county, with reference to the type of commercial development already taking place near the shops around Chillum Road, which borders Avondale.
“There’s a strip club, a dispensary and a 24-hour convenience store where one of my neighbors was appalled to find you could buy brass knuckles,” he said. “The Lidl grocery store opened up in the (Shops at Queens Chillum), and that’s been an asset to the community, definitely, but is a cannabis shop?”
Avondale residents are now exploring other avenues to push back, including pursuing historic designation for their neighborhood. The Avondale Grove and Avondale Terrace subdivisions were developed in the 1940s by the prolific Washington real estate magnate Harry Wardman, and the area has retained much of its original charm and layout, according to Padua. He said a 2007 survey determined Avondale could meet criteria for both county and federal historic preservation, something residents now see as a potential shield against redevelopment.
With a county council vote expected this fall, community members like Padua say the community has stepped up to fill the gap of elected officials.
“If it weren’t for myself and other neighbors advocating for the neighborhood and going door-to-door in the hottest weeks of the month of the summer … they wouldn’t know about it,” he said. “None of that outreach came from our district councilmember, whose job, you’d think, would be to represent and advocate for residents.”
After the hearing, county councilmember Wanika Fisher (District 2) and her chief of staff introduced themselves to residents and appeared surprised by the backlash. They offered to meet with the residents, but not until three weeks later.
“There just seems to be such a lack of self-awareness,” Padua said. “If you go to your councilmember and say, ‘Please listen to us,’ and they give you a meeting date three weeks later, that doesn’t feel like representation.”
At the July 1 hearing, Fisher acknowledged the community’s concerns and said she hoped the plan was nearing its final draft. She also referenced House Bill 1466 — a new state law about accessory dwelling units, which includes a requirement that counties study zoning near transit areas — in defense of the new draft.