Prince George’s lawmakers pressed pause on a controversial bill that would’ve prohibited townhouse construction for a time across most of the county, pitting proponents concerned about inadequate infrastructure and public services against opponents, including many in the real estate industry, concerned about economic growth.
Council Bill 52, presented in April by Councilwoman Wala Blegay and Chair Thomas Dernoga, D-District 6 and D-District 1, respectively, would’ve disallowed new townhouses and other types of single-family attached units for two years across huge swaths of the county — especially in its southern and central districts outside the Beltway. The prohibition would not have applied to certain areas planners have designated as transit or town centers — for instance, Largo Town Center, the poster child for the county’s economic development aspirations along Metro’s Blue Line, and National Harbor. The bill’s authors intended primarily to arrest what they consider sprawl where they see residential growth outpacing the adequate provision of roads, schools and so forth, and to focus that growth instead in transit-oriented pockets better suited to accommodate it.
At a Thursday meeting of the county council’s planning, housing and economic development committee — which drew what Blegay called “a developer convention,” roundly opposed to the bill, arguing it would disincentive private investment and further crimp housing supply — members, including the sponsors, voted to “hold” the bill. But the underlying concerns on both sides didn’t go away. Expect to see the formation of some sort of task force to make recommendations for a future iteration of proposed legislation.
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