UMD Students Rally Against Proposed Townhouse Development in Wooded Area

More than 300 University of Maryland students and residents from nearby neighborhoods gathered on the campus late Friday afternoon to register their full-throated opposition to a proposed townhouse development in a wooded area near the College Park campus.

The Save Guilford Woods rally targeted a plan to turn university-owned land over to a private developer in order to build housing for 300 graduate students — and 81 market-rate townhouses.

University officials have cast the proposal as a chance to begin to meet the campus’ desperate need for graduate student housing. But community leaders, students, environmentalists, and local politicians are increasingly casting the plan as a bad idea that is anathema to the university’s mission to combat climate change. Among other concerns, they say it would exacerbate the heat islands that already exist on the College Park campus.

They also describe the 10-acre wooded area as an important hub for wildlife and biodiversity in a neighborhood that is becoming increasingly congested. The proposed development area represents about 28% of the remaining woods abutting the UMD campus.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/10/16/umd-students-rally-against-proposed-townhouse-development-in-wooded-area/