Wooded Hillock’s status uncertain

Environmental activists who have been fighting to preserve the Wooded Hillock expressed shock and confusion after East Campus' primary developer Foulger-Pratt/Argo Investment pulled out of the project late last week, because no one seems to know what impact this turn of events will have on the forest.

Although FP-Argo struggled to secure the loans needed for the $900 million development, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie said the university will attempt to purchase the development firms' site plan and work with multiple developers to build the project piece-by-piece without them. Wylie suggested the project could begin as early as January despite this setback, drawing alarm and worry from environmental activists who hoped the loss of an investor might buy them more time to preserve the hillock — an area behind Comcast Center used for educational purposes which would be partially bulldozed  in the construction.

"Our initial response was utter confusion and it still is," said Joanna Calabrese, chairwoman of the Student Sustainability Council. "The whole timeline is unclear because the way the university does development and the way they form contracts is very time-intensive."

At its meeting yesterday, the Senate Executive Committee, which sets the agenda for the rest of the University Senate, drafted a letter to Wylie urging her to investigate ways to reduce the development's environmental impact on the hillock and to consider the hillock's value for educational purposes. But Jonathan Sachs, an undergraduate senator from the school of behavioral and social sciences, said the letter wasn't strong enough. The selection to develop the hillock, Sachs said after the meeting, "warrants and needs a second look."

"This isn't going to satisfy the people who I represent," Sachs said.

The project — billed as the largest redevelopment in College Park in at least 50 years — had been stalled since earlier this year, but Wylie said the university will continue working on relocating the mail building, greenhouses and other facilities on the East Campus site that the university had planned to move to the hillock area. Because of community outcry, Wylie said the university is working with the community to find other areas to move the facilities to but noted no area large enough to accommodate them will be perfect.

"If the university proposes one or more alternate sites, it will request input on all alternatives alongside the hillock to make an informed decision," Wylie said. "If we want to develop East Campus, we must have an alternative."

A senate committee charged with looking into the hillock's development recommended a task force be formed to evaluate university policies that guide the process of selecting construction sites. Although the senate is still looking for a graduate student and faculty member to serve on the task force, three people have already been selected: Gerald Miller, a professor emeritus in the chemical and life sciences school, undergraduate Brent Finagin, and Willie Brown, chairman of the University System of Maryland's Council of University Staff. Senate chairwoman Elise Miller-Hooks said all members have been vetted to ensure they have no stake in the issue.

Many members of the university community have taken sides, however.

"Once those trees are gone, they're gone," graduate student Alexander Weissman said.  "Students and faculty will no longer have anything to fight for, and the hillock will sit there until they finally do come up with the money to pave and build."

Some activists, like Weissman, say this course of events was the worst thing to happen to the hillock.

"It is clear that Dr. Wylie wants to start bulldozing as soon as possible in a mad rush to put an end to the controversy," Weissman said.  "Whether or not they can start building afterwards is immaterial to her."

Others expressed concern about the funding of the project, which they said doesn't specify whether it will be more costly for university to obtain a new appraisal of the land and then develop the area, resulting in construction being postponed even more.

"How can you say you'll break ground in January when you have to start again in this whole process?" Calabrese said.

She noted it takes 90 days to secure groundbreaking permits from the Department of Natural Resources and developers must also be approved by the Board of Regents and the Department of Public Works before they can commence construction.

"We honestly can't respond until they know what they're doing," she said.

Hillock activists intended to pass a motion during last week's senate meeting but ran out of time and had to postpone until the next meeting on Dec. 10. Calabrese said they may change the motion and demand more transparency in the development process because it's important students understand the timeline of events.

"Our goal is still to preserve the hillock, and this doesn't change our effort," undergraduate senator and student activist Bob Hayes said. "We're working as hard as we can to fight this and reaching out across the state."

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