The draft version of Prince George’s Official Community Plan has drawn mixed reviews from a local advocacy group trying to preserve Ginter’s Green.
Ginters Green Forever Organizer, Jenn Matthews told MyPGNow.com the Massey Drive Extension as well as another road project won’t be a threat to the green space.
“We are really excited to see that road extension was taken off and we also saw a part of the Foothills Boulevard extension taken off so they are no longer planning to go all the way to Ferry Avenue so that protects some areas of Ginters from road building.”
City Councillor Brian Skakun hopes the rest of council speaks up and protects one of PG’s crown jewels from being developed.
“I grew up by Ben Ginter’s house in Westwood and that has been a greenspace since then. We need to still keep it as a green space as we have lots of land especially outside of the bowl for development. We don’t need to be selling off more local, municipal property to create more housing.”
However. the draft OCP still contains a Foothills Boulevard extension to 22nd Avenue that isn’t sitting well with the advocacy group or Skakun stating expanding makes questionable sense in relation to traffic and the area.
“It would be a really costly project for something we already have and that is excellent ways to get off and on to Foothills that are really easy and handle lots of traffic – there are two turning lanes at 15th (Avenue) and one good one on 18th so we already have lots of options,” said Matthews.
“You can’t extend it to 22nd and then merge it into Ospika. They might want to go up Cranbrook Hill, which could literally be tens and tens of millions of dollars and it doesn’t make sense. I think if we leave it where it is along 18th with the roundabout – people can access the Ginters spot on 18th just as much as they do 15th Avenue. I think we need to leave it alone.”
“There are other places in our community where we could spend tens of millions of dollars on paving and infrastructure and it sure wouldn’t be (used) to extend Foothills.” added Skakun.
Local residents have until tomorrow (Friday) to give feedback on the draft OCP by filling out the survey on the city’s web site.
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