Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan and SMA

On March 13^th and 16^th, 2024, the project team hosted an open house at the Sports and Learning Center in Landover.
The open house was the culmination of the project’s public participation program. Project staff wanted to ensure we heard the community’s voice correctly and collect feedback on the DRAFT vision statements, planning goals, and urban design scenarios.
During the events, staff gave a brief presentation featuring a project overview, the highlights of our community engagement efforts, a market study summary, and a brief explanation of the DRAFT urban design scenarios. View the presentation here!

Following the presentation, attendees were invited to review and provide feedback on the area-wide vision and goal statements via an online or paper survey. Additionally, attendees were asked to review the Local Transit Center and Stadium Focus Area vision statements, market study findings, precedent imagery, and preliminary urban design visualizations. Check out the poster boards here!

The survey questions are based on the material presented on the poster boards. The responses to the survey questions will inform the plan’s visions, goals, policies, and strategies. Staff will begin to develop the plan and expect to release the initial DRAFT for public review in the Fall of 2024.

Review the summary of survey responses here in English and Spanish.

Initiation of the Central Avenue – Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan and Sectional Map Amendment (SMA)

On May 30, 2023, the Prince George’s County Council, sitting as the District Council, approved Council Resolution CR-053-2023, authorizing the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to prepare a sector plan and concurrent sectional map amendment (SMA) for the Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line area, which includes a portion of the Town of Capitol Heights and the City of Seat Pleasant. The Council simultaneously approved the goals, concepts, and guidelines and a public participation program for this comprehensive planning project within portions of Planning Areas 72, 75A, and 75B.

The sector plan area is located along the MD 214 (Central Avenue) corridor between Washington, D.C., and I-495 (Capital Beltway). It will focus on the areas in and around Capitol Heights, Addison Road-Seat Pleasant, and Morgan Boulevard Metro Stations, as well as Commanders Field. To see a map of the sector plan boundary, click the above Maps tab.

The area’s three Metro stations and select properties surrounding them are designated Local Transit Centers by Prince George’s 2035 Approved General Plan (Plan 2035). Local Transit Centers are defined by Plan 2035 as mixed-use areas that are well connected by transit and offer local-serving retail, limited office uses, and a mixture of medium-density housing options. The new sector plan will reflect the vision and goals contained in Plan 2035, including focusing on new development in designated centers and preserving existing neighborhoods, and will amend applicable countywide functional master plans.

The SMA is a process that facilitates the rezoning of properties within a plan’s boundary. Typically, this process results in a zoning change for only a few properties, and the remaining properties keep their existing zoning classification.

Now that the sector plan and SMA have been authorized by the Council, the plan preparation process has commenced. The project team will begin to implement the public participation program, and all interested citizens are encouraged to participate in the planning process. Public input meetings and events will be scheduled both in person and virtually throughout the summer and early fall of 2023. Additional online input exercises will be made available as well. The project team is excited to begin working on this project and hear what the community has to say!

Overview

Central Avenue – Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan Video

Check out our project team members as they introduce the Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan!

The Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan will be a guiding document developed through a multi-year public engagement process, extensive review, and public hearings. The sector plan will address future development in and around Capitol Heights, Addison Road-Seat Pleasant, and Morgan Boulevard Metro Stations, designated as Local Transit Centers in Plan Prince George’s 2035 (Plan 2035). This plan will also focus on FedExField and the Central Avenue corridor.

Over the past decade, several studies, reports, and implementation strategies have been completed. However, a sector plan has yet to be adopted for the Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line area. The existing documents will be major building blocks for developing this sector plan, thereby solidifying many of the key findings, recommendations, and strategies detailed throughout the reports.

This plan will entirely replace the 2008 Approved Capitol Heights Transit District Development Plan and Transit District Overlay Zoning Map Amendment and supersede (within the project boundaries) the 2010 Approved Subregion 4 Master Plan and Sectional Map Amendment. It will reflect the vision and goals of Plan 2035, including focusing on new development in designated centers and preserving existing neighborhoods. This new sector plan will examine the area’s existing conditions, issues, opportunities identified by community members and other stakeholders, and market potential, and develop a vision and goals for future growth and preservation, along with specific and focused policies and strategies to achieve those goals.

All properties within Prince George’s County outside of the City of Laurel were rezoned on April 1, 2022, to the new zones contained within the County’s adopted 2018 Zoning Ordinance through the Countywide Map Amendment (CMA). A sectional map amendment (SMA) is being conducted concurrently with this plan should properties require further zoning changes to implement the recommendations of this sector plan.

The lack of development and growth that has occurred in this area since the 2008 Approved Capitol Heights Transit District Development Plan and Transit District Overlay Zoning Map Amendment implies there is a critical need for updating land use and planning recommendations to incentivize and guide future development within this key area of Prince George’s County.

Timeline

Project Timeline (TBA)

Maps

Project Boundary Map

Central Avenue - Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan Boundary Map

Resources

Welcome to our Resources Center!

Here is information about the planning process for the Central Avenue-Blue/Silver Line Sector Plan in Prince George’s County. Below are resources showing what the planning team has been working on.

Market Study

ResourcesAE Urban Economics, part of the project consultant team, is a well-established firm that has worked with public agencies, non-profit organizations, universities, and private developers across the country and here in the County. Their team conducted an unbiased assessment of the (re)development and/or improvement opportunities in the plan area through the methods below:
Collected demographic, economic, and real estate market conditions data
Reviewed the input received from community engagement activities
Interviewed business owners, developers, real estate professionals, and other stakeholders in the area
Identified and analyzed real estate activity, regional and national trends, community priorities, and development barriers and constraints
Applied their expertise to test the feasibility of alternative development scenarios
This study reviewed the existing conditions of the local market and its future potential, investment and infrastructure needs, and community and small business needs.
Market Study Full Report

Online Activity: Vision Exercise

The Vision Exercise comment period closed on January 24th, 2024, however, you can still view the draft vision statements here: https://pgplanning.konveio.com/draft-vision-statement. Watch the video below to learn more about how we arrived at this stage in the planning process.

Online Input Summary

From September 7 to November 22, 2023, the project team deployed two interactive online input activities, one using the ArcGIS Online Survey123 application and another using Slido.com. The exercises were linked on the project webpage, shared through constant contact emails and social media, included in information shared with stakeholders, and distributed at various community events in QR code form as activity business cards.

Word Clouds

The Slido.com platform allowed the community and stakeholders to use 1-3 words to build Word Clouds that represent their vision for each of the three inner-beltway Metro Stations and the surrounding area.

SWOT Exercise Summary

The ArcGIS Online Survey123 platform allowed the community and stakeholders to actively participate by dropping pins on a map to indicate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats (SWOT) within the sector plan boundary, accompanied by an explanation. Additionally, users were asked to link their comments to a Plan 2035 element.

Virtual Public Kickoff Meeting Recording and Summary

Review videos and documents from the Virtual Public Kickoff Meeting Event held on Wednesday, September 27th, 2023, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Q&A and Slido Poll Response Summary (English)

Q&A and Slido Poll Response Summary (Spanish)

Public Kickoff Presentation (English)

Public Kickoff Presentation (Spanish)

Existing Conditions Summary StoryMap and Full Report

View Existing Conditions Summary StoryMap! The StoryMap, an Esri ArcGIS Online tool, provides a concise, visually engaging, and interactive summary of the existing conditions within the sector plan area organized by the eight Plan 2035 elements.

For even more detail on existing conditions, look at the full report. *Coming Soon*

Planning in Prince George’s County

The Prince George’s County Planning Department is working tirelessly to create the communities of choice you know and love. We want to provide our residents with all the resources they need to remain informed and a part of the process by which their communities develop and grow. Below are some resources that can help you navigate the planning process and learn about current initiatives.

What is M-NCPPC?