“Residents ask questions like “why is the city even considering this?” “What about the impact on the schools and the traffic?”. And then they almost always say to us, “thank you for circulating the petition and standing up for us.”
The residents [...] felt like their city representatives did not care about their concerns. ”
Good evening. My name is Tameeka Washington and I live at 12502 Scarlet Lane.
I would like to discuss the proposed apartment building to be constructed behind the Market Place Shopping Center.
Belair Bowie was designed in the late 1950s as a community of single family homes and townhouses and has largely remained so for well over 50 years. For all Bowie residents living north of Route 50, this proposed building will forever change the basic character of our community. I and my neighbors have circulated a petition and have more than 300 signatures from residents in Section B to Section Y. And we will keep canvassing until the public hearing is scheduled. When speaking to the residents about this proposal they ask questions like why is the city even considering this? Where are they going to put it? What about the impact on the schools and the traffic? And then they almost always say to us, “thank you for circulating the petition and standing up for us.” The residents who signed the petition said they felt like their city representatives did not care about their concerns. In speaking with the developer, Mr. Brian Berman, he has shown great disdain for this community and has used words like nonsensical and emotional to address our issues. In the past few weeks he has also installed perimeter lighting that flashes bright searing light into the houses on Scarlet Lane from sunset to sunrise. At first, I thought they were just testing the new lights, but it’s been going on for so long that I’m beginning to think it’s retaliatory for our efforts to stop this apartment building. We cannot have a company that has so little respect for our community and our values having such a negative impact on our city. We all know that no one will pay $2,000 a month to rent an apartment, which means the rents will drop and crime will rise. Mr. Berman will be long gone working on his next project when this happens, while the impact to Bowie will be irreversible. The proposed apartment building also does not fit into Bowie’s Master Plan. The Master Plan calls for parking areas to be located to the rear of the buildings, which is not the case with this apartment. It calls for buildings to be appropriately sized to the site, conform to the proposed land use density, and support the character envisioned for the area. It does none of those things. The surrounding community is almost entirely single family homes. The proposed building would be the largest structure of any kind within a 3-mile radius of Bowie Market Place. The City Council also needs to seriously consider the adverse effect such an increase in population will have on the quality of our children’s education. Classroom size remains a serious problem in many Bowie schools, including Bowie High School and Benjamin Tasker. The planned population increase would only exacerbate this problem. The residents of Bowie do not support the proposed 285 unit apartment building. As our representatives, we ask that when this proposal comes before you, that you immediately reject it. Thank you for your time. http://fw.to/MAPSfyT (link to Capital Gazette article)