East Campus plans include hotel rooms, housing, office space

But many of the 100 residents who attended the forum expressed concerns about the impact of increased traffic on Route 1, public safety, the adjacent neighborhoods and the environment.

Because many parts of the project are still being designed and the review process has to be undertaken by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a construction date has not been selected, said Richard L. Perlmutter, principal of Argo Investment Company, one of the developers.

Tenants also have not been selected, but Bryant Foulger, principal of Foulger-Pratt Companies, another of the developers, asked for input about what attendees would like to see. Answers ranged from a grocery store, clothing stores, art galleries, upscale restaurants and a daycare center.

Project officials hope to establish a steering committee, made of civic leaders, residents and officials from the county, city and university later this year, he said. The committee would help ensure input from their respective groups is considered, he said.

The university began planning East Campus to propel it into one of the top 10 research universities in the country, said Doug Duncan, the university’s new vice president for administrative affairs. East Campus will help attract new students and faculty by providing housing and retail, he said.

About 2,000 apartments and homes would be built as part of the project, said Jon Eisen, managing principal of Street Sense, one of the architectural firms working on the project. Half of those would be closer to the commercial center at Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway, he said.

The other half, which would be closer to the Old Town College Park neighborhood, would take on more of a residential feel to mitigate the impact, Eisen said.

But several university students asked officials to include undergraduate housing in light of an impending on-campus housing shortage that could leave 600 undergraduates looking for places to live next school year. Students said they hope this development could alleviate shortages in the long-term.

‘‘Students might be angry there’s retail when they don’t have a place to live,” said sophomore Emily Waters of Columbia, who could be displaced because of the on-campus housing shortage.

After the forum, Duncan said university officials are working to address the undergraduate housing issue and hope to announce a solution this summer.

Kathy Bryant was one of several residents who complained that East Campus could affect traffic flows. It took a half-hour one day last week to travel from her home in the Old Town neighborhood to the Capital Beltway exit on Route 1, slightly more than three miles away, she said.

‘‘I can see it taking me an hour to get to [Interstate] 95. This will bring lots of noise, cars and traffic,” Bryant said, adding she was worried the project would remove some of the university’s Georgian architecture.

East Campus could include an aesthetically pleasing parking garage, Eisen said.

Other residents and students expressed concerns about the environmental impacts, such as runoff, to Lake Artemesia on the other side of the nearby Metro train tracks. But officials promised to use best practices consistent with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.

College Park resident Leo Shapiro asked officials to consider leasing to local and ethnic restaurants.

‘‘I like a lot of your vision, but I think a lot of it is in the execution,” he told them.

Project officials said they plan to recruit a mix of local restaurants and national chains, just as they did when they developed the Downtown Silver Spring project, Perlmutter said.

Other residents said they were worried about what businesses could open in East Campus and how much influence the university could have on the project. Once East Campus is complete, the city and county would receive real estate taxes on the improved land, Perlmutter said. No property taxes are paid now because the land is university-owned, he said.

The university would set forth a list of businesses officials do not want included in the project, possibly including tattoo parlors and pawn shops, Duncan said.

That would not be a problem, Foulger said, because those are not the kinds of businesses developers want to attract. Their hopes for attracting businesses appear to be in line with what the residents had expressed, he said.

E-mail Jennifer Donatelli at jdonatelli@gazette.net.