Staff editorial: A livable community

The university is not responsible for the countless delays and setbacks that have plagued the plan for a vibrant and attractive downtown College Park. The East Campus project, originally estimated at a steep $900 million, was doomed as soon as the economy began to plunge, with the lack of available credit and willing developers only further cementing its fate.

Thankfully, the dream of a college town that is more than just livable has not been abandoned completely. The university officials who oversee the project have rightly scrapped the plan of revitalizing the stretch of Route 1 between Fraternity Row and Paint Branch Parkway in two large phases in favor of tackling it piecemeal.

Breaking up the large-scale development into chunks will allow funding to flow more freely, not to mention that the new plan won't make Route 1 an even bigger eyesore by cluttering it with yet more construction.

Officials have found a commendable developer to redesign the first phase and have earned the optimistic support of city council members and key players such as David Daddio, an alumnus who maintains the blog Rethink College Park. All of these are good signs, even though construction likely won't begin until 2013.

What the university must now do is extend its new policy of moving forward cautiously and gradually to include the community as well.

In other words, the university must heed the valuable lesson of the Wooded Hillock.

During one of the earliest stages of the East Campus project, officials attempted to relocate the university facilities housed along the 38 acres intended for development to the forest near Comcast Center, to the consternation of environmentally conscious students and politicians alike who created a considerable uproar.

After much dispute, the issue was resolved when the university purchased the Washington Post Co.'s College Park plant for relocation purposes instead.

However, that doesn't mean stakeholders such as students and environmentalists are going to shut up now and forever more.

The university may have a developer, but it needs community input, especially because the original plan has been shelved.

What do the people who actually live here want downtown, and more importantly, what do they want first?

Perhaps a luxury hotel isn't an immediate priority for residents, while graduate housing is a more pressing need. Maybe students would rather have buildings that are certified as green instead of more sandwich shops or discount clothing stores.

The officials who oversee redevelopment have learned enough lessons about East Campus the hard way. Now it is time for them to ask before they act.