Councilmembers Want CSX Crossing Early in Cafritz Development

Some members of the College Park Mayor and Council want to see a CSX railway crossing built with the first phase of the south of College Park, but the Cafritz attorney said there’s no way to pay for it that early.

Cafritz Property is currently pursing a rezoning approval so that it can build a Whole Foods Market, additional retail space, along with residential and office units. Although developers said they are discussing with CSX a possible railway crossing on the east side of the development, , it would be a part of the second wave of construction.

Councilwoman (Dist. 3) proposed at Tuesday night’s meeting that council adopt the same approach as University Park — that the city support the development only if the CSX crossing becomes a part of phase one of construction.

That’s just not feasible, said Cafritz attorney Chip Reed.

“We wouldn’t have any way to pay for it unless there’s public funds,” he said, and estimated a crossing would cost about $10 million. “There’s no way infrastructure like that can precede the development. It needs to be funded,” he said.

Ideally, Cafritz would pay for the crossing with revenue collected from the first phase of the development, Reed said. But other options could include turning to state funds designated for capital projects, or tax increment financing or a special tax district, he said.

Cafritz has supplied a location map to CSX, pinpointing where the crossing could go, Reed said. He said Cafritz paid $15,000 to CSX for its engineers to review design plans for the crossing, once they are prepared.

But the money will just “sit there,” until the project is further down the road and developers are ready to design the crossing, Reed said.

He presented three possible locations for the crossing on Tuesday night, the most likely being the original proposal to connect south of the ERCO subdivision and continue to River Road.

In the current development design, Van Buren Street terminates within the property, but one suggestion is to continue the street further east and over the tracks. The third option is for the crossing to lead to Physics Ellipse Drive, an option Reed said hasn’t received much support.

But he said it doesn’t make sense to postpone development until infrastructure details are finalized, such as the crossing.

And for now rezoning is the first task; Reed and the city’s planning department said the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission does not include traffic and adequacy of facilities as part of this step of approval.

At the next stage of approval, Cafritz will go before the project stakeholders again as part of the preliminary plan of subdivision, when it will more specifically address adequacy of facilities and measures to control traffic, For now, the goal is simply to get rezoned, Reed and city planning staff said.

The 37.34-acre plot of land, east of U.S. Route 1 is currently zoned R-55 for residential use, but Cafritz is pursing a change to Mixed-Use Town Center (MUTC) zoning, allowing it to build a retail space, office spaces and nearly 1,000 residential units.

While a small portion of the land is in the Calvert Hills neighborhood of College Park, the majority lies within Riverdale Park, which has yet to take a final vote on the rezoning application.

The College Park planning staff has recommended that the mayor and council vote to approve the rezoning request at its meeting next week, with several conditions to Cafritz’ development plan.

Cafritz will go before the county’s planning board for its zoning change on Dec. 15, and then the approval will move on to the District Council.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission staff plans to recommend a vote in favor of the Cafritz application with conditions, according to its tentative long-range agenda.