Purple line to proceed in East Campus

University and MTA officials said despite plans to start afresh on the East Campus development project, the Purple Line won't be going anywhere.

Although the university and the Maryland Transit Administration continue to debate where to run the Purple Line through the main part of the campus, both are in firm agreement that the alignment should be an integral component of East Campus, the area along Route 1 between Paint Branch Parkway and Fraternity Row that is slated to be transformed into a bustling town center.

Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said she alerted the MTA to the changes in the works for East Campus, but said the new plans should have "minimal impact" on the alignment they agreed on. Wylie said the Purple Line — a light rail system that would connect Metro lines from Bethesda to New Carrollton — is integral to the university's vision of a transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly center, which will likely include a hotel, market-rate housing and a Birchmere music hall.

"I think they will be more successful because of mass transit," she said.

The original developer for the East Campus project, Foulger-Pratt/Argo, pulled out in November due to economic concerns, and in late July, the university announced its new partnership with The Cordish Company.

Throughout the year, developers will redesign the original project and segment the building process into smaller phases.

Mike Madden, the MTA's Purple Line project manager, said he is eager to discuss the alignment with The Cordish Company, with which he worked previously on the Metro's Blue Line. He added he had already tried contacting one of the project's engineers to touch base on its status.

"I am trying to reach out and would very much like to meet with them, to show them our alignment and go from there," Madden said. "This is the time to get back together and see if our alignment needs any work."

Wylie said the university, Madden and The Cordish Company will eventually work together, but she added that both the East Campus project and the Purple Line are still in their early concept stages and the first phase of construction on East Campus may begin before Purple Line plans are finalized.

"We don't know when the Purple Line is going to be built, and we're not going to wait on East Campus, to build East Campus, for the Purple Line," Wylie said. "But in order to build it out fully — we have 38 acres to work with — I think we need the Purple Line."

David Daddio, a university alumnus and the founder of the development blog Rethink College Park, said the original Purple Line alignment for East Campus was "central to the project," and therefore the university would be wise to keep those plans intact.

"They can't rely on the Purple Line, but I think it will connect the campus to the region in a way that's not going to make it just car-oriented," he said. "The whole goal is to draw out this sort of regional shopping center, and people are probably thinking, ‘What's going to happen to traffic?' because there's already a lot of traffic in College Park. I think the Purple Line can kind of moderate that problem."

Daddio added the university appears off to a good start with forming a new design to be built piecemeal, but he cautioned against allowing the center's appearance to suffer during construction.

"I think they understand the finance side of it," Daddio said. "I think they're on the right track to succeed. But I think they need to think through the look of it and the feel of it."

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