SGA holds event to plan 'college town'

Designs for a downtown College Park makeover drawn up by architecture students during a 10-hour meeting Saturday will serve as a starting point for city planners and developers aiming to bring student-friendly retail, housing, landscaping and traffic improvements to the area, city officials said.

The design session, called a "charrette," was hosted by the Student Government Association as part of SGA president Andrew Rose's plan to transform College Park into more of a college town.

Rose said the next step for the planning of the future of College Park is to present the plans created at the charrette at a city council meeting, which he said Mayor Stephen Brayman invited him to do. He said he will also scan the plans from the charrette into reports next year's SGA can use to continue to improve College Park.

"The results from the forum will be scanned together and given to administrators, the city council and whoever else can use them," Rose said. "Next year's SGA administration will have it to work with."

The two main issues discussed were improving the land around the Knox Boxes and the east part of the campus, which extends behind Fraternity Row and connects the Metro station to the main part of the campus.

"The teams were interested in an integration between the campus and the surrounding community," Rose said of the eight groups of students, each led by a senior or junior architecture major. The teams presented their ideas to the whole group later in the day.

Other issues the teams focused on were making the eastern portion of the campus a town center with housing and retail, expanding Route 1 and making new, safer walkways for students.

"We wanted to know how to preserve what [students] would like to have in College Park and keep students safe," said SGA Chief of Staff Devin Ellis.

The designs were general, and the teams didn't take financial specifics into account when brainstorming ideas. One team suggested having businesses running along Route 1 with apartments on top for students.

"Programs like this are informative and helpful," Brayman said. "Students are clearly thinking outside the box at this point, so it may be difficult to implement some ideas, but it is a good thing to get the student body involved."

About 80 people attended the event, including several administrators and city officials, including Brayman, city planning director Terry Schum and university facilities planning director William Mallari.

Schum also said funding for improving the Knox Box area, one of the focuses of the charrette, was discussed at a budget session earlier Saturday.

"These exercises are important and very instructive," Schum said of the charrette. "They jump start ideas for the city."

The charrette was a follow-up to the College Park forum held March 30.

Brian Kelly, the director of the architecture program, said he thinks it is important for students to attend events such as this to show the city they care about improving the area.

"It is time that they city starts taking students seriously," Kelly said. "When you look at images of our peer institutions, you see fantastic towns and great universities. You can't have one without the other."

Contact reporter Kelly Whittaker at whittakerdbk@gmail.com.