The proposal to turn the Book Exchange site into a 6-story mid-rise apartment building for students and professionals has stirred quite a bit of discussion among City’s southern inhabitants – University students and Old Town residents. Being so close to the campus, UMD, smart growth proponents and students would love to see this proposal go through. On the other hand, some long time residents fear that the proposed development is an invitation to more trouble for them – stuff like “late night parties, noise ” etc. will be very common, they think. While the project appears to be in line with the recently updated zoning for the property, but political opposition could delay the project considerably and ultimately quash it.Does north College Park have anything to do with this property development? Directly the answer may be no, but indirectly, definitely yes. North College Park has a sizable student populations living in its houses. If more and more rental housing is built in the south, students will likely to leave north and concentrate closer to campus. This may or may not have an effect to the northern neighborhoods.
In the meantime, the four council members representing the north part of the city have been divided on the proposal. While District 1′s Chris Nagle supports the proposal, her counterpart in District 1 Patrick Wojahn does not. District 4′s Dennis Michelle is also against the proposal. The other District 4 council member and UMD graduate student Marcus Afzali is publicly undecided but skeptical.
Ilya Zusin, the developer of the proposed development will come to this Month’s North College Park Citizen Association (NCPCA)’s meeting tomorrow (Oct 14). The session will start at 8:10pm; detailed agenda can be found here. NCPCA meets every second Thursday of the month at Davis Hall (9217 – 51st Avenue).
Earlier this month, the members of the Old town civic association overwhelmingly rejected the proposed development. Tomorrow’s discussion has been billed as an informational session to NCPCA’s members. This means that the members will unlikely to take a position on the matter.