Residents continue fight to block shopping center
Consider appealing approval of project next to Charles H. Flowers High School
Springdale residents hoping to block construction of a shopping center they allege will be a community nuisance have begun raising money to pay for an attorney in the event that they decide to appeal the county's approval of the project.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing the center's developer said he is waiting on community representatives to contact him to discuss ways to address residents' concerns and create a covenant to determine what types of stores would be allowed in the center.
The developer of the project is the Bethesda-based OC Bellehaven LLC.
Residents said they are concerned that Flowers students might loiter at the center during school hours and that the center would increase local traffic, said Nakia Ngwala, a member of the Ardmore-Springdale Civic Association. Residents also believe that the community is sufficiently served by businesses in nearby Largo, she added.
After the council approved the project, civic association members began a campaign to inform Springdale residents about potential problems caused by the center. The association held a July 13 meeting on the project for residents in which the majority said they opposed the center, Ngwala said.
At the meeting, the association announced the formation of a fund to raise money for legal counsel in the event the community decides to appeal the council's approval of the shopping center, Ngwala added. The fund had $625 as of Aug. 13, Ngwala said, adding that the association has not yet hired an attorney.
Residents canvassed Springdale on Sunday afternoon handing out surveys that asked residents if they knew about the proposed shopping center and how they felt about its pending construction.
OC Bellehaven LLC hopes for a spring 2010 groundbreaking on the project, with completion by spring 2011, said Richard Reed an attorney and spokesman for the developer.
Although the council has approved the project, the issuance of a building permit depends on the developer and Springdale residents creating a covenant — or written agreement — that details the types of retail residents do not want to see in the shopping center, Reed said. The council made creation of the covenant a part of its approval.
Reed, an attorney with Maryland and Washington, D.C.,-based Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC, said he is still waiting for Springdale residents to contact him.
Ngwala said in an Aug. 17 e-mail to The Gazette that the sides have not yet met because the community is drafting a letter to G.S. Proctor & Associates, a Maryland and District-based lobbying firm that is acting as a community liaison between OC Bellehaven LLC and Springdale residents, outlining what residents do not want at the center. A meeting with OC Bellehaven representatives will be scheduled once the letter is complete, Ngwala said.
"As the tenancy tends to take more shape and there are some prospects I think there's room for a give or take if we sit at the table and listen to one another," Reed said. "I would appreciate that no one would want a check cashing, pawn shop back there. My thought there is we're going to do the covenant and restrict the main things that are historically a concern."
In the meantime, resident Meredith Jolley said she prefers the trees that now dot the parcel to a shopping center.
"I don't want people hanging out at night and I don't think there's going to be much business there anyway," Jolley said. "There's no need for it."
E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.
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