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It’s Bladensburg vs. the world in high-stakes bid for valuable Prince George’s County land – Maryland Matters

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It’s Bladensburg vs. the world in high-stakes bid for valuable Prince George’s County land – Maryland Matters

Call it the second Battle of Bladensburg.

Two centuries after the Maryland town was the site of a skirmish in the War of 1812, a fight is brewing over the Town of Bladensburg’s desire to annex valuable land owned by the Prince George’s County government that the nearby Town of Cheverly was already planning to annex.

The first Battle of Bladensburg was fought with cannons and muskets. The latest will be fought with development agreements and lawyers.

The object of Bladensburg’s desire is a 113-acre parcel of land adjacent to Cheverly where Prince George’s County Hospital was located until 2021.

On Thursday evening, the Bladensburg town council will hold a public hearing for residents to weigh in on the annexation plans. It begins at 5:30 p.m. at Bladensburg Town Hall — just a few blocks from the site along the Anacostia River where the original battle was fought 210 years ago.

Mayor Takisha James said representatives from the county government and Cheverly have been invited to testify, as a courtesy, but that town officials mostly want to hear from their own constituents. It’s very likely, she said, that the council will vote on the proposal that night.

To James, the annexation is a no-brainer, and should be a linchpin for the town’s ambitions for further economic growth, expanding its housing stock, and better transportation infrastructure.

“The town of Bladensburg has always been interested in embracing our economic opportunities through the years,” she said.

But county officials, Cheverly leaders and the entities that the county has hired to develop part of the property, now known as Hospital Hill, describe Bladensburg’s potential move as a naked land grab — and have suggested that legal action is inevitable if town officials go through with their plans.

“It’s baffling,” said Prince George’s County Council President Jolene Ivey (D), who lives in Cheverly but has represented both towns during her political career.

A very preliminary site plan for the possible redevelopment of the old Prince George’s Hospital Center site in Cheverly. The Baltimore-Washington Parkway is to the left and Cheverly is to the right. Image courtesy HomeTeam 5.

Cheverly and Bladensburg are part of a clutch of five municipalities in the immediate area that traditionally work together, Ivey said.

“There’s usually lots of cooperation and lots of goodwill,” she said.

The Prince George’s County government, which owns the land, has contracted with two entities — a large-scale development firm based in Bethesda, Urban Atlantic, and a group of politically experienced Prince George’s investors known as Hometeam 5 — to clean up and build out 44 acres of the property, which sits on the highest point in the county.

The plan calls for more than 1,300 residential units, including townhouses, apartments and accommodations for active senior citizens. It also calls for construction of a 70-room hotel, 40,000 square feet of retail development, and 70,000 square feet of office and medical space.

Just as significant, the plan would extend several roads within the Cheverly town limits to the old hospital property. Cheverly officials also envision designing a new town center on the property once they annex the land from the county.

“This project is vital to Cheverly’s economic development and future growth,” the town says on a page of its website dedicated to the hospital redevelopment.

Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh did not respond to a request for comment left through the town’s email system last week. But last week she told WTOP, a Maryland Matters news partner, that Cheverly always planned to annex the land, but was advised to put off doing so by county officials, to expedite the development process.

“It was always understood it was going to be part of Cheverly,” Munyeneh said.

The mayor added that because town residents were the most heavily impacted by the medical center’s presence over the decades it was next to Cheverly — the hospital moved to considerably larger digs in Largo three years ago — it makes sense for the town to benefit from the new development.

“Cheverly has also been the community that has suffered the most from the hospital traffic, from the escapees from the hospital, from the helicopter pad, and all the noise and the damages done to our homes,” she said. “It was always sort of understood, we did the suffering when it was the hospital, we will enjoy the benefit when it is a new development.”

But James said that Bladensburg is equally committed to the plan as envisioned by Prince George’s officials and the development team, and that by annexing the property, “we would be at the table for how we can enhance the project.”

An artist’s rendering of the possible redevelopment of the old Prince George’s Hospital Center site in Cheverly. Image courtesy HomeTeam 5.

“We see this as a mutually beneficial opportunity,” she said. “We believe the Town of Bladensburg is equipped to provide the necessary support and resources to bring this project to fruition.”

But at this point, Bladensburg appears to be on one side of the debate — literally and figuratively — arrayed against the county, Cheverly and the developers.

In a letter to James last week, leaders of the development team said they had “very significant concerns” about Bladensburg’s desire to annex the land, including the fact that they were never consulted about the idea.

“The annexation of a large proposed development project without any initial discussions is highly unusual,” the developers wrote. They added that it’s been widely known that the county government and the development team have been working closely with Cheverly officials, with the understanding that Cheverly would eventually take over the property.

“Our plan reflects the desires of an overwhelming majority of the residents in the Town of Cheverly,” the letter said. It was signed by Vicki Davis, managing partner at Urban Atlantic, and John D. Porcari, representing HomeTeam 5.

Porcari, a Cheverly resident, is a former Maryland Transportation secretary and was deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation during the Obama administration. His partners in HomeTeam 5 are his brother, Chuck Porcari, who worked for state government in the Glendening administration and has since worked for national unions and serves on the board of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters; Justin Ross, a former state lawmaker from Prince George’s County; Brad Frome, a onetime top aide to Prince George’s County Executives Rushern Baker (D) and Angela Alsobrooks (D); and G.S. Proctor Jr., a prominent lobbyist in Annapolis and Prince George’s County. Ross and Frome run a development consulting business and have worked at the same lobbying firm, where Ross was once a partner.

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Earlier this month, Rhonda L. Weaver, the Prince George’s County attorney, wrote to James, outlining the county’s objections to Bladensburg’s maneuvers. She asserted that the hospital site is not contiguous to the Bladensburg’s boundaries but is at least half a mile away, arguing “there is no justifiable purpose for capturing this site.”

She also described clumsy attempts by Bladensburg to connect the town to the hospital site by arbitrarily using strips of land alongside highways and rights-of-way. Such moves, she suggested, could violate state law.

County and Cheverly officials have dangled the possibility of suing Bladensburg if officials there move ahead with their annexation plans.

But James said her town is within its rights under state law to annex the property and that there’s nothing in writing compelling the county to yield the land to Cheverly. She compared Cheverly’s complaint that it was planning to annex the property all along to “buying the blinds when you haven’t closed on the house yet.”

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