Residents of Old Town gathered Monday night to forge their official position on the prospective housing development to be built at the site of the current Maryland Book Exchange. Twenty-six minutes later, a conclusion was reached: Residents unanimously voted to recommend that the city council oppose the proposed developement project.

Plans for the site were first made public in late August, when developer Ilya Zusin and his partner, Josef Mittleman announced their intention to convert the space into 335 apartment units, the majority of which would be populated by undergraduate students.

Since that time, much opposition has been levied against the proposed plan. Old Town Civic Association president Chris Aubry summarized the general sentiment Monday by saying that though the project is in compliance with the Route 1 Sector Plan, concern has been expressed over the "perceived impact on quality of life" that 1000 additional residents would have on Old Town.

While an increase in traffic and further difficulty with parking are a concern to some, the primary anxiety of most residents is the additional noise and mayhem that would likely accompany such a sizeable influx of undergrads.

"I would say that 95 percent of the people in this room have had concerns about parties…students at night making too much noise, even just talking or yelling and screaming," said resident Kathy Bryant. "Eight hundred to 1000 additional is going to make the noise level intolerable," she said.

Zusin tried to assuage concerns by saying that a portion of the space would be marketed toward graduate students and visiting professors; however, he failed to offer a guarantee that this would ultimately be the case. To residents like Dennis Herschbach, this lack of a guarantee is something of a deal-breaker.

"I question the whole assumption that you're going to have mature adults live next door to 800 students," said Herschbach. "I have trouble living next door to five. Anybody in their right mind is not going to live next to 800 students."

To others, the distinction between 800 students and 1000 students is negligible. Nigel Key posited that the university's failure to provide sufficient housing for its students is what prompted the private sector to move in in the first place.

"[They're] moving the students from campus where they should be located into the private neighborhoods, where they're affecting the residents in a very negative way," he said. "We moved into a residential neighborhood. We didn't move into a neighborhood with high rise dormitories."

A motion was made to vote on whether a letter drafted to city council should approve or oppose the existing development plan.  All 24 residents in attendance at the meeting voted to recommend that the city council oppose the plan.

Another motion was made encouraging residents to voice their specific grievances in an email to Aubry, who will in turn incorporate them into the letter.  The issue will likely be addressed by the city council sometime in October, said District 3 Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich.