Downtown Prince George’s

Policy 1

Establish and direct the majority of County resources and investment to designated Downtowns to ensure their success.

  • PD1.1 - Designate New Carrollton Metro, Largo Town Center Metro, and Prince George’s Plaza Metro as the initial Downtowns for Prince George’s County.
  • PD1.2 - Enact legislation to confirm the initial Downtown designations and establish tax increment financing districts, parking districts, transportation demand management districts, and other targeted financial and implementation programs, as necessary and appropriate, to facilitate the development of Downtowns.
  • PD1.3 - Develop implementation plans for each of the Downtowns to examine their “Completeness Score,” identify the lowest performing elements, and prioritize resources and funding to address areas that require improvement.
  • PD1.4 - Encourage the relocation of government agencies (county, state, and/or federal) to the Downtowns to catalyze development and investment.
  • PD1.5 - Coordinate with municipalities and other government entities to ensure meaningful input, active collaboration, stakeholder buy in, and joint investments are leveraged to their highest potential.
  • PD1.6 - Prioritize capital improvement projects that encourage new private investment and create walkable communities. Potential projects include public streets, streetscape amenities, underground utilities, and advanced information and communication technology infrastructure.
  • PD1.7 - Establish a by-right development approval process and fast track permit process for the Downtowns with clear and consistent regulatory standards and processes and shortened review periods. This can be accomplished through the proposed comprehensive update to the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances or by exploring opportunities to further streamline the review of applications in the Downtowns.
  • PD1.8 - Establish a flexible framework of design standards to facilitate development in the Downtowns, while ensuring a high level of development quality. The comprehensive update of the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances should support the elements of a “Complete Center” (see Appendix A).
  • PD1.9 - Reduce surcharge fees or exempt the Downtowns from the public facility and school surcharge fees to facilitate development, in particular for multi-family units.
  • PD1.10 - Amend the Level of Service standards or exempt the Downtowns from the adequate public facility transportation requirements to encourage development in transit locations. Since Downtowns rely on multimodal transportation, bike and pedestrian standards should not be reduced.
  • PD1.11 - Market the Downtowns to prospective developers, federal agencies, nonprofits, and retail trade groups as the County’s prime opportunity sites.
  • PD1.12 Incentivize compact development and the use of green building programs, such as LEED® for Neighborhood Development or similar comprehensive, sustainable development approach.
  • PD1.13 - Update and expand the 2011 Economic Development Toolbox Update to identify those programs relevant to transit-oriented development.
  • PD1.14 - Evaluate future updates to functional master plans to identify potential revisions to PlanMaryland’s Planning/Conservation Areas per Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) guidelines. The five areas are Priority Preservation Areas for Agriculture, Natural Resource Areas, Water Resource Areas, Historic and Cultural Resource Areas, and Climate Change Impact Areas.