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Recent reports suggest that Westphalia Town Center, the massive 530-acre "mini-city" that was to be constructed on existing farmland in southern Prince George's County, faces a very uncertain future in this weak economy. The developer is facing foreclosure proceedings, and the State Highway Administration has scrapped funding for a crucial interchange that would have connected the town center to Pennsylvania Avenue and Suitland Parkway.

Perhaps Prince George's County officials should read the handwriting on the wall and refocus their attention, efforts and resources where they should have been all along: on revitalizing and maximizing the economic potential of the county's transit-rich urban inner Beltway communities instead of trying to create brand new cities out of remote suburban farmland.

The county already has 15 Metrorail stations inside or adjacent to the Capital Beltway. Most of these stations still have hundreds of acres of developable land in their immediate vicinity. Transforming the existing urban roadways around these stations into "complete streets" by adding sidewalks, streetlights and bike paths, and increasing housing and commercial density and supply in the vicinity of these stations through quality infill development would be dramatically easier, cheaper and more environmentally responsible than building new roads and Metro stations where they do not currently exist.

This November, Prince Georgians will elect a new county executive and a new County Council. For the sake of the county's future, voters should ensure that the candidates they elect are fully committed, in word and deed, to redeveloping and revitalizing the underutilized transit station areas in the inner Beltway communities, making them safe, vibrant, compact and walkable or bikeable places that will be the envy and the gem of the metro area — much like the Roslyn-Ballston Corridor in Arlington County, [Va.], or Bethesda and Silver Spring in Montgomery County are today. Until that is fully accomplished, Prince George's County should place suburban expansion projects like Westphalia on the shelf.

Bradley E. Heard, Capitol Heights