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Dora Escobar owns five cash-checking and money-wiring businesses in the Takoma/Langley Park Crossroads and says she knows firsthand that her clients, many who live in rental units in the Crossroads, can't afford increases in rent.

Escobar said Tuesday night during a joint public hearing that a proposed redevelopment plan could raise rents and displace current Crossroads residents.

"I see people worried about sending $50 back home. I know if they have to pay more in rent, they're not going to be able to send that $50," she in Spanish through a translator at the hearing. "Before we think of ourselves, we have to talk about these people who work all day until 7 o'clock at night."

Escobar was one of more than 30 business owners, residents and activists in the Takoma/Langley Park Crossroads who praised redevelopment efforts to reduce crime and make the Crossroads more transit-oriented but also called for specific protections — such as requiring developers to set aside a percentage of affordable housing units — that would prevent displacement of low-income residents and small businesses.

The Prince George's County Council and Planning Board held the public hearing on the county's version of a Takoma/Langley Crossroads sector plan. The plan will guide development along the intersections of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard and residential areas around the intersection.

Montgomery County has drawn up its own plan for development in its jurisdiction. Many speakers during the hearing worried that the two counties' plans differed from each other.

Montgomery County's proposed plan calls for no net loss of affordable housing. Prince George's County has no affordable housing policy, but the county Planning Board's plan recommends including a variety of housing types and densities and exploring policies to give existing residents the option of remaining in the Crossroads.

Takoma Park resident Navid Nasr said he wants specific policies or quotas in place to maintain a stock of affordable housing in the area.

"Currently the preservation of affordable housing is an afterthought. That needs to change," he said.

Resident Francisco Luna said he was hopeful that the plan would improve the quality of life and supported many of the recommendations but that he wanted to see specific protections for current and long-time residents.

"We're very worried about the fact that the plan didn't take into account people who can't afford very high rent," he said.

In preparing the plan, planners offered 47 different opportunities for community input, whether through public meetings, surveys or regular group sessions, Prince George's senior planner Aldea Douglas said during the hearing.

Residents and business owners also called the plan premature, saying development will depend on Maryland Transit Authority's plan for the proposed Purple Line, a 16-mile mass transit line that will run through the Crossroads.

Vince Burke of B. F. Saul Company, which owns the Hampshire-Langley Shopping Center, said the MTA plan calls for a 120-foot right-of-way on University Boulevard, while Prince George's plan calls for a right-of-way that is 150 feet.

"We think that's excessive," he said of the right-of-way.

Both counties' plans recommend jug-handle turns, while MTA's plan does not. Marc Dubick of Walgreens said the jug-handles would break up commercial property.

"It essentially breaks parcels into pieces. Jug-handles push the traffic into the neighborhoods," he said. "That's not good for retailers."

Jorge Sactic of the Business Association of La Union Mall said small businesses could be run out of the area by new development since many serve the predominantly-immigrant local population.

At the conclusion of the hearing, County Councilman Will Campos (D-Dist. 2) of Hyattsville said that the planners, his office and other officials have heard from almost all of the groups speakers represented during the hearing. Campos said they "are listening to what you all have to say" about affordable housing and transit.

"We understand that, we listen to that," he said. "This is going to be a marriage and a compromise with all the entities represented. Not everybody is going to get what they want."

The public record is open until July 14. People can mail written comments to the Clerk of the County Council at 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.