A Stronger Blueprint for Growth Along the Blue Line

Prince George’s County has adopted a new plan for the Central Avenue corridor that preserves greater development capacity around Metro and advances practical steps toward safer, better-connected communities.

Late last month, the Prince George’s County Council adopted the Central Avenue–Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan and Sectional Map Amendment, creating a new framework for growth around the Capitol Heights, Addison Road–Seat Pleasant, and Morgan Boulevard Metro stations.

The plan’s central achievement is straightforward: it preserves substantially greater capacity for homes, businesses, and mixed-use development around the three inner-Beltway stations along Central Avenue. GCHIC, the Blue Line Corridor Coalition, the City of Seat Pleasant, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and others supported that direction and opposed efforts to lock key Metro-area properties into lower-intensity residential or conventional commercial patterns.

Expanding opportunity at Addison Road

One of the most important results involves the long-vacant Addison Station brownfield near the Addison Road–Seat Pleasant Metro Station. The 23-acre site was used as a rubble fill for debris from construction of the Metro station in the 1980s and later faced contamination and methane-related development challenges.

The adopted plan incorporates the requests of GCHIC, the City of Seat Pleasant, and others to rezone the site for transit-oriented mixed-use development. That change removes a major planning barrier and better positions this large property, within a quarter-mile walk of Metro, for remediation and redevelopment. It also strengthens the incentive to undertake the environmental cleanup needed to return the site to productive use.

South of the station, the largely vacant ten-acre property at 505 Addison Road South presents a different challenge. Its new owner, a Virginia-based single-family and townhome developer, sought to retain lower-intensity residential zoning that would have foreclosed mixed-use development. Spurred in part by GCHIC’s objection, the adopted plan maintains the recommended upzoning of the site and future land-use designation for mixed-use transit-oriented development.

Although planners declined GCHIC’s request to incorporate a specific land use strategy to pursue mixed-use development on the site, they emphasized that the final zoning and future land-use designation both contemplate that outcome. Still, continued engagement will be necessary to ensure the proper mix of multifamily housing, retail, and other uses needed for successful transit-oriented growth on that prime opportunity site.

Better transit and safer streets

The plan also calls for a safer, better-connected transportation network centered on the three inner-Beltway Blue/Silver Line Metro stations. Its recommendations include filling sidewalk gaps, improving street crossings, building low-stress bicycle and trail connections, strengthening links between neighborhoods and parks, increasing bus frequency, and upgrading bus stops.

One of the plan’s most consequential proposals is to transform much of Central Avenue from a six-lane, highway-like road into a four-lane urban boulevard. This “road diet” would create room for safer pedestrian crossings, wider sidewalks, separated bicycle facilities, landscaping, and other improvements that better support the people, homes, and businesses planned near Metro.

The Central Avenue Connector Trail would provide another major walking and bicycling connection through the corridor. GCHIC also helped preserve additional right-of-way on Addison Road South for complete street improvements and future transit-priority lanes. Additionally, after advocates raised concerns about a proposed pedestrian bridge across Central Avenue near the Metro station, the plan was revised to place greater emphasis on safer street-level crossings and a possible traffic signal.

Turning the plan into action

While the sector plan establishes a better transit-oriented vision for the Blue/Silver Line Corridor, it cannot by itself build infrastructure, attract businesses, prepare development sites, or coordinate public investment. GCHIC is working on that next step, with a particular focus on the Capitol Heights–Addison Road Metro (CHARM) Gateway.

We believe this two-station area at the border of Washington, DC, can become a walkable, mixed-use downtown for Greater Capitol Heights, with more concentrated housing, shops, services, public spaces, and community activity connected by safer streets and transit.

To move that vision toward implementation, GCHIC is developing a Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Development (TIED) Plan that will examine the infrastructure and public improvements the area needs, where development and business opportunities exist, how projects could be financed and phased, and which public, private, and community partners must carry them forward.

Keep connected with GCHIC to learn the latest about ongoing TIED planning and implementation efforts in the CHARM Gateway.

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