Students poised to fight housing tax
Laura Schwartzman
Issue date: 3/28/07 Section: News
When it comes to Annapolis and elected student leaders, the fight has almost always focused on tuition and textbooks. But this year, in an unusual departure, most wrangling has been over a housing bill.
Student leaders took up the fight earlier this month, they said in a group interview last night, forming an unusual coalition of the Student Government Association and Graduate Student Government presidents, a local development blogger and a former SGA chief of staff. The group joined forces to lobby against a bill that would remove incentives for developers to build housing nearby the university.
The bill, which has shown up during previous Annapolis sessions but has never had the votes to pass, has already sailed through the House of Delegates after achieving sponsorship by the entire Prince George's County delegation. If it passes in the Senate, it could be a windfall for local politicians, who have sought to dramatically ramp up housing legislation in an effort to limit student populations in area neighborhoods.
But students say the bill, which seeks to shrink the area where developers can receive a $7,000-per-unit fee waiver if they develop student housing projects, would remove incentives for new construction amid of the biggest housing crunch in 20 years. In the Senate, where the student leaders took up the fight, the rezoning was advocated by state Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel).
After SGA President Emma Simson, GSG President Laura Moore and Rethinkcollegepark.net blogger David Daddio all decided to testify against the bill in Annapolis at the bill's hearing, Rosapepe agreed to meet with the students over the weekend to hammer out a compromise. Daddio submitted written testimony, but Simson and Moore opted to meet with Rosapepe in private.
After telling Rosapepe and other area officials, including County Council Chair Tom Dernoga, that the bill would lessen the chances of future student housing projects being built along Route 1 North of the campus, the students said Rosapepe said if they could work out a compromise with the city council, he would attach an amendment.
"Until we intervened with this legislation, the legislation as it was originally written would have had a very negative effect on student rents," Moore said. "A lot of what came out of [that meeting] was us being able to demonstrate the need for student housing. I don't think [the legislators] really understood how bad our situation was."
The details for an amendment would be worked out in a city council work session, with the students' goal of taking a zone wrapped tightly around the university and extending it northward along Route 1 to include several key properties. One key property was the Koons car dealership in Berwyn, and others were along the university side of Route 1.
"Basically what we did is went back and forth over every square inch of territory," GSG chief of staff Devin Ellis said. It was important to make clear, Ellis said, that the city was "killing us to get a pound of flesh from the developers."
But in the days following the meeting, things changed. District 2 council member Jack Perry, who represents Berwyn and who voted against the compromise, told his constituents they were getting a raw deal, the students said. By the time the College Park Mayor Steve Brayman had heard the ire of residents, the ground was falling out from the Berwyn section of the deal.
"Several people in Berwyn have concerns about the whole thing," Brayman said. He said he told the students previously that "anything east of Route 1 should be viewed as an act of war."
And it was. By the next meeting, the council had removed from the compromise most of the east side of Route 1. All that remained is the property near CDepot and the AMF bowling lanes. That's a loss to students, the student leaders said, because even just a slim area on that side of the city's major corridor could yield expanded student housing options.
Simson said the uproar about the Berwyn section was "not based on really educated discussions." Instead, the section was removed because residents may have misunderstood that student housing would be constructed deep in the neighborhoods, not along Route 1. "Berwyn's not zoned for that kind of construction," Ellis said.
"I'm more upset with the set that they're calling this the compromise. We didn't have a worksession and go back and forth" on these issues, Simson said.
Ellis' view was harsher: "City council members demonstrated once again that the paranoia of their residents is far more powerful for them than striking a good deal."
Brayman sees the deal differently, however. Going back on an agreement with students, he said, was "necessary but unfortunate."
"I think we can build from this and it won't be the status quo of how we work in the future," Brayman said. "It was a good opportunity for us to dialogue and, for the most part, the compromise worked with student leaders."
But students said it was better to compromise than fight the bill to its death year after year. For Ellis, the wrangling over the bill was the "biggest fight and also the dumbest," but Moore said it was one that was needed.
"I think we were extremely effective," Moore said. "We all worked together. We investigated the issue thoroughly, did our homework and went out guns blazing."
Contact reporter Laura Schwartzman at schwartzmandbk@gmail.com.
Student leaders took up the fight earlier this month, they said in a group interview last night, forming an unusual coalition of the Student Government Association and Graduate Student Government presidents, a local development blogger and a former SGA chief of staff. The group joined forces to lobby against a bill that would remove incentives for developers to build housing nearby the university.
The bill, which has shown up during previous Annapolis sessions but has never had the votes to pass, has already sailed through the House of Delegates after achieving sponsorship by the entire Prince George's County delegation. If it passes in the Senate, it could be a windfall for local politicians, who have sought to dramatically ramp up housing legislation in an effort to limit student populations in area neighborhoods.
But students say the bill, which seeks to shrink the area where developers can receive a $7,000-per-unit fee waiver if they develop student housing projects, would remove incentives for new construction amid of the biggest housing crunch in 20 years. In the Senate, where the student leaders took up the fight, the rezoning was advocated by state Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel).
After SGA President Emma Simson, GSG President Laura Moore and Rethinkcollegepark.net blogger David Daddio all decided to testify against the bill in Annapolis at the bill's hearing, Rosapepe agreed to meet with the students over the weekend to hammer out a compromise. Daddio submitted written testimony, but Simson and Moore opted to meet with Rosapepe in private.
After telling Rosapepe and other area officials, including County Council Chair Tom Dernoga, that the bill would lessen the chances of future student housing projects being built along Route 1 North of the campus, the students said Rosapepe said if they could work out a compromise with the city council, he would attach an amendment.
"Until we intervened with this legislation, the legislation as it was originally written would have had a very negative effect on student rents," Moore said. "A lot of what came out of [that meeting] was us being able to demonstrate the need for student housing. I don't think [the legislators] really understood how bad our situation was."
The details for an amendment would be worked out in a city council work session, with the students' goal of taking a zone wrapped tightly around the university and extending it northward along Route 1 to include several key properties. One key property was the Koons car dealership in Berwyn, and others were along the university side of Route 1.
"Basically what we did is went back and forth over every square inch of territory," GSG chief of staff Devin Ellis said. It was important to make clear, Ellis said, that the city was "killing us to get a pound of flesh from the developers."
But in the days following the meeting, things changed. District 2 council member Jack Perry, who represents Berwyn and who voted against the compromise, told his constituents they were getting a raw deal, the students said. By the time the College Park Mayor Steve Brayman had heard the ire of residents, the ground was falling out from the Berwyn section of the deal.
"Several people in Berwyn have concerns about the whole thing," Brayman said. He said he told the students previously that "anything east of Route 1 should be viewed as an act of war."
And it was. By the next meeting, the council had removed from the compromise most of the east side of Route 1. All that remained is the property near CDepot and the AMF bowling lanes. That's a loss to students, the student leaders said, because even just a slim area on that side of the city's major corridor could yield expanded student housing options.
Simson said the uproar about the Berwyn section was "not based on really educated discussions." Instead, the section was removed because residents may have misunderstood that student housing would be constructed deep in the neighborhoods, not along Route 1. "Berwyn's not zoned for that kind of construction," Ellis said.
"I'm more upset with the set that they're calling this the compromise. We didn't have a worksession and go back and forth" on these issues, Simson said.
Ellis' view was harsher: "City council members demonstrated once again that the paranoia of their residents is far more powerful for them than striking a good deal."
Brayman sees the deal differently, however. Going back on an agreement with students, he said, was "necessary but unfortunate."
"I think we can build from this and it won't be the status quo of how we work in the future," Brayman said. "It was a good opportunity for us to dialogue and, for the most part, the compromise worked with student leaders."
But students said it was better to compromise than fight the bill to its death year after year. For Ellis, the wrangling over the bill was the "biggest fight and also the dumbest," but Moore said it was one that was needed.
"I think we were extremely effective," Moore said. "We all worked together. We investigated the issue thoroughly, did our homework and went out guns blazing."
Contact reporter Laura Schwartzman at schwartzmandbk@gmail.com.
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