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Glenarden residents wanting the proposed Purple Line light rail to extend to Landover were told Monday the first hump is getting funding for the proposed line before anything else.

About 30 people met in a public forum held jointly by the Glenarden City Council and the Glenarden Civic Association at the James R. Cousins Jr. Municipal Center to discuss how the Purple Line affects their city and how it fits in with Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission blueprints for redeveloping central Prince George's County.

The Purple Line is a proposed 21-stop, 16-mile light rail linking Bethesda and New Carrollton that is proposed to take 19,200 cars off the roads and carry 64,800 riders daily, according to Deidre Smith, a consultant to Maryland Transit Administration. If the project receives federal funding, construction could begin in 2013 or 2014, Smith said.

The project costs $1.5 billion, and half of the funding must come from the federal government, said U.S. Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Dist. 4) of Fort Washington, who was invited because she is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The other half would come from the state. Edwards said she has testified on behalf of the Purple Line as a project of national significance but added the first step is to get funding before there can be reasonable discussion of extending it.

"Let's get one win under our belts," Edwards said.

Edwards empathized with commuters, adding that her own travels as an elected official covering the fourth congressional district is telling enough for the need for mass transit. Her area is as far south as Fort Washington and as far north as Frederick, with Bethesda in between.

"I know every single log jam on that east to west route I'll make," Edwards said.

The Landover Gateway Sector Plan and Sectional Map Amendment, a Park and Planning plan to rezone the old Landover Mall site for future office, retail and residential space, includes the possibility for a Purple Line extension from New Carrollton to Landover, Christine Osei, project manager said.

However, the inclusion was only a recommendation, and the funding source for such an extension is unknown, Osei said.

She said transportation is key to accessing about 500 acres of land, which includes the Woodmore Towne Centre, a 245-acre mixed use development that could open as early as spring 2010. The Sears is the only store open at the old Landover Mall, she said, which closed in 2002.

"Sears is the only one still standing, and that's not what we want," Osei said. "What we want requires mass transportation to bring people in and take people out."

The state has not planned for an extension beyond New Carrollton, Osei said.

"From a planning perspective that's a goal," Osei said. "It doesn't mean it's not going to change. It may change."

An extension would give the city exposure to residents who have never heard of Glenarden and would be an alternative to using shortcuts to get to Washington, D.C., said Glenarden resident Delores Grey, 76.

"I like to drive, but I know I can just take the Purple Line to go where I need to go without having to go on the [Capital] Beltway," Grey said.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.