The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper
the diamondback
SPRing housing guide
2024
2
Table of contents
CONTENTS Housing 3 Autoville department
6 City council
4 Housing Resources
7 SGA reforms
increased 5 RHA costs
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autoville
3
College Park residents express concerns with proposed Autoville housing development By Katharine Wilson | Staff Writer Residents in College Park’s North Autoville and Cherry Hill areas said they have concerns about a proposed multi-family development disrupting their “quiet” residential neighborhood. Community members gathered Tuesday night at the Chinese Bible Church of College Park to discuss a proposed housing development on Autoville Drive. Most residents at the meeting said they were worried about the development, citing possible issues with student renters, traffic and altering the character of their neighborhood. The development would contain 10 to 14 units split among five or seven two-story buildings. Each unit would contain two bedrooms and have at least 1.5 parking spaces, according to Edward Gibbs, the property’s attorney. If approved, the housing complex would be Donan Enterprises LLC’s first development. Donan Enterprises bought the halfacre property in 2017. A single-family home currently sits on the land. The Autoville neighborhood sits south of the College Park Marketplace shopping center and behind large hotels on Route 1. College Park resident and former city council member Mary Cook, who lives in Cherry Hill — a neighborhood adjacent to Autoville — said Autoville and the surrounding area stand out from the rest of the city. “North Autoville is what College Park used to be,” Cook said. Other Cherry Hill and Autoville residents joined Cook on Tuesday in sharing a plethora of concerns about this proposed development and how it could disrupt their quiet neighborhood. There is only one main entrance to the section of Autoville Drive the development would lay on, off of Cherry Hill Road. Currently, there is no right of way to turn off Cherry Hill Road, and residents voiced concerns that a housing development would worsen traffic. One person at the meeting said Autoville Drive residents cannot turn
onto Cherry Hill Road during certain times of the day. Gibbs said developers will conduct a transportation study to address these concerns. While the development plans include parking underneath the structure, neighborhood residents said that might not be enough to keep cars from crowding Autoville Drive. District 1 council member Alan Hew, who lives in Autoville, also voiced concerns over construction equipment and crews taking over the street. Lisa Ealley, a resident of the Hollywood neighborhood, said she wants to stand with her neighbors against the development. Ealley said she wants nature in the neighborhood to be preserved. More buildings like the one proposed would make the area overpopulated and would worsen existing traffic problems, she said. “This is an area that really could be preserved … it’s a quiet neighborhood,” Ealley said. “Maybe we could just let this go someplace else.” Many residents were also concerned about the possibility of student renters entering the neighborhood, they said. District 4 council member Maria Mackie proposed the developer advertise the building to senior citizens to fill a missing gap in College Park housing. That would also prevent otherwise inevitable student renters, Mackie said. Donan Enterprises does not yet know if this property would be mostly used by student renters or other parties. But Gibbs said he believes that students are likely not a target market for the development. Mackie also echoed a common concern among community members that the development could cause a resurgence of issues that came with a nearby development on Cherokee Street. Renters who live in townhouses on Cherokee Street park on the street, according to Mackie, and there are
frequent arguments between neighborhood residents and renters. “I’m seeing all these horrific things that we went through with that and I’m concerned that we’re going to have a repeat here, even though it’s a smaller scale,” Mackie said at the meeting. Due to recent rezoning, the parcel of land that would house the development is not designated for single-family homes, according to Gibbs. The land is instead designated for a “neighborhood activity center,” which Gibbs said encourages more dense development. But to address concerns, the developers hope to get the building approved under the old zoning, which is allowed until April. This would allow for less dense development. The property owner is “hopeful that
she could do something that would be sensitive and wouldn’t be a burden to the community,” Gibbs said. Cook and other residents want developers and local officials to ensure that the final plan works for everyone in the neighborhood. “We have known all along that something would probably be built on Autoville, we just want to minimize the impact,” Cook said. The development is still in early planning stages and developers have yet to submit a preliminary subdivision plan to the county. After that, developers will submit a detailed site plan to county and city officials.
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4
Resources
Housing resources Where to find off-campus housing: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING DATABASE The university’s online database for off-campus housing provides the latest house and apartment vacancies around the campus. With your student account, you can add a listing or look for a roommate while providing a roommate profile of your own.
FACEBOOK On select University of Maryland student Facebook groups, you can find student subletters and students looking for roommates. A comment or direct message showing interest could put you in contact with the individual who’s listing.
REAL ESTATE MARKETPLACES Online real estate marketplaces offer listings for entire apartments and houses in College Park. Many allow you to filter out listings by price range, amenities and more. Some offer maps, so you can figure out a property’s proximity to this university’s campus.
Renter’s insurance information: Renter’s insurance can protect you from a liability lawsuit as well as your personal property when unexpected events such as fires, flooding or vandalism occur, depending on the policy. Many major insurance companies hold renter’s insurance policies. The average cost of renter’s insurance in Maryland was $13 per month in 2024, according to NerdWallet. You may also be covered by your parents’ insurance depending on their policy.
Increased costs
5
UMD RHA votes in favor of potential increased meal plan, dorm costs By Sumaya Abdel-Motagaly | Staff Writer
The University of Maryland RHA voted on Nov. 28 to advance a proposal that would increase the cost of student meal plans and standard rooms for the 2024-2025 academic year. If the changes are approved by the University System’s Board of Regents, students would pay an additional $104.50 for meal plans and an additional $333 for dorms during the 2025 fiscal year. The 3.59 percent proposed increase for meal plan costs would help cover cost increases in maintenance, utility, cost of food and employee salary, according to Dining Services’ interim director Joe Mullineaux, who proposed the increase. With the increase, student workers in dining halls would be paid $15.49 per hour. Michelle Ameyaw, an RHA senator and sophomore neurobiology and physiology major supported the increased dining fees. She said Dining Services’ efforts to maximize services while considering cost are “impressive.” “Dining Services has been doing a lot of really hard work to give us the quality food that we have,” Ameyaw said. The Department of Resident Facilities and Resident Life proposed a 3.61 percent increase in the price of standard dorm rooms to cover insurance, utilities and maintenance and keep up with increases to the cost of living. “Our goal across all of our departments is to do everything we can to keep our fees and fee increases as low as possible,” Resident Life director Dennis Passarella-George told RHA senators at Tuesday’s meeting. The proposed increases are
not yet final, according to RHA president and junior government and politics major Erika Holdren. They will fall to a committee made up of presidents from RHA, SGA and GSG, which will approve the proposals during a cabinet meeting with university president Darryll Pines, said RHA student fee coordinator Eric Bennett. The proposals are also subject to further approval from this university’s Board of Regents, Bennett, a sophomore Chinese and computer science major, said. The resolution to increase meal plan costs passed 22-1 with two abstentions. The resolution to
increase dorm room costs passed 24-0 with one abstention. Anya Olson, a freshman environmental science and technology major and an RHA senator for the North Hill Area Council, supported the increased fees for dorms. The increase would help address utility concerns such as air conditioning, Olson said. “Our constituents are like ‘when will there ever be AC in our buildings’ and ‘why is the water out again?’” Olson said. “These things can only be fixed with this sort of dedicated increase.” RHA senators rejected another proposal to increase transportation fees for students by 16.4
A Food Service staff member at 251 North Dining Hall on Oct. 15, 2023. (Neelay Sachdeva/The Diamondback)
percent. It would have required students to pay $44 more. David Allen, the executive director of this university’s Department of Transportation Services, brought the rejected proposal. Bennett called the proposal the “highest percent increase proposed for student fees in the last 10 years.” “I really sympathize with all the problems that the DOTS department is having right now,” Bennett said. “That cost is falling on students to pay.”
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City council
College Park City Council discusses rent subsidy pilot program for student housing By Eden Binder | Staff Writer
A pilot program could soon grant 150 University of Maryland undergraduate students a $1,500 rental subsidy for off-campus apartments, according to a presentation at the College Park City Council meeting on Jan. 23. In the presentation, District 3 council member Stuart Adams and city council student liaison Dhruvak Mirani emphasized the importance of investing in affordable housing and explained the program’s eligibility criteria and selection process. “This is an opportunity for
the city to step up in a fiscally responsible way to support our residents,” Adams said. The funding for the pilot program comes from the 3 cent increase in taxes on commercial, apartment and industrial properties that was approved and implemented as part of the city’s fiscal budget for 2024. Grant money in the pilot program could amount to a maximum of $225,000, according to the presentation. College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir formed a subcommittee to create the pilot program during a
council meeting in July. Adams chairs the subcommittee and includes College Park student liaisons, one council member from each district, the mayor, the city manager and other city staff. Adams said that this university’s Student Government Association has been heavily involved with the development of the pilot program. However, District 1 council member Jacob Hernandez said he is worried about the lack of collaboration between the city and university administration on the project. Some of his constituents are concerned about the lack of official university representation on the subcommittee, Hernandez said. “[The city’s] trying to really build the partnership we have with the university,” he said. Hernandez is also worried about choosing candidates with the program’s potential lottery selection process. The pilot program will likely use a lottery selection process that would select 150 eligible applicants at random, according to Mirani. “We’re going to have well over 150 applicants,” Hernandez said. “And it’s going to be really difficult to parse through [them] given the current eligibility requirements.” To be eligible for the pilot program recipients must be full-time undergraduate students at the University of Maryland for the 2024 fall semester, qualify for a Federal Pell Grant during the 2023-24 academic year, have proof of a signed lease at an eligible apartment and have a minimum GPA of 2.0. Students must also be willing to participate in surveys and data collection for evaluation of the pilot program. District 2 council member
Susan Whitney expressed concerns that the program would encourage students to choose more expensive apartment housing instead of less expensive neighborhood housing. “We [may be] encouraging students to live in a nicer place, but essentially at the end of the day spend more money,” Whitney said. The $1,500 subsidy amount was determined by data from 12 student apartment buildings in College Park, which showed the median rent price for a one bedroom apartment in a four-bedroom shared apartment is $1,245 per month. The subcommittee hopes the grant program will cover around one month’s worth of rent for each recipient, Mirani said. In the future, Adams hopes to possibly expand the program to include graduate students and other non-student residents of College Park. “This is a framework to help with affordable housing for folks that are unable to purchase a home,” Adams said. “We do believe this can create a template for non-students in future years.” District 3 council member John Rigg said he believes the program will have positive impacts for students. Rigg said he hopes the program will support students, which make up a large portion of College Park residents. The council plans to hold a town hall next month to further discuss the pilot program before a vote is scheduled. If the council approves funding for the pilot program, Adams said online applications for the program will hopefully be released in April and the grant money will be distributed to recipients in May and June.
SGA reforms
7
UMD SGA debates election reform, passes six bills in longest meeting of semester By Lillian Glaros | Staff Writer
The University of Maryland SGA passed six bills and debated election reform during the longest meeting of the year Wednesday. In a meeting that lasted more than six hours, the Student Government Association passed bills regarding bus shelters, student fees, off-campus housing and class availability. One bill encourages the Department of Transportation Services to audit this university’s shuttle bus system by collecting data on its use and students’ opinions on the system. Another bill sponsors a survey to gauge students’ interest in the expansion of bus shelters around campus. Joslyn Kim, the SGA’s undergraduate studies representative and the bill’s sponsor, believes the bill is important because the survey will provide crucial data to DOTS on student interest in these bus shelters. “It’s very helpful for DOTS to have data and numbers like this that they can use to gauge student interest on a certain matter,” Kim, a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences, said. The SGA also passed a bill that endorses and supports a letter calling on university administration to help DOTS offset its budget deficit instead of increasing student fees. Eliav Hamburger, the speaker of the legislature, sponsored the bill on behalf of the SGA’s executive branch and said DOTS lost funding over the COVID-19 pandemic. “[That] has made it really hard for them to maintain their services at their current servicing rate, which is why we’ve been trying to search for alternative ways to fund them,” Hamburger, a junior computer engineering major, said. The SGA also passed a bill aiming to collect student input on off-campus rental properties to be included in a 2023-24 housing guide. Linsey Anderson, the SGA’s agriculture and natural resources representative, sponsored the bill to give students more personal advice on renting off-campus. “I really thought that having something more in depth and really just collected from your peers, like having your friend recommend something to you, I thought that it would be really useful for people to have,” Anderson, a junior animal science major, said. Other bills passed will promote legal resources for undocumented students through a promotional campaign and will advocate
for increasing the availability of information studies classes. The final bill discussed will update the SGA’s election calendar and rules. The SGA recessed before they were able to pass the bill. Legislators debated ticket affiliates, types of tickets and campaign violations. Previously, ticket leadership held affiliates — people who want to assist a ticket while not being on it — accountable. If the election bill passes, the election commission will hold affiliates accountable. “Now ticket affiliates are formally run by the elections commission, which I think is a far more appropriate system that fixes a lot of the issues the system has historically had,” Nicholas Marks, a junior government and politics and secondary education major, said. Marks has been involved with the SGA for multiple years and falsified dozens of petition signatures in the election appeal review process last spring. In a statement posted on social media in May, Marks took responsibility for the damage caused by the petition and said
he made a “childish lapse in communication.” Legislators considered whether executive and legislative tickets should be split. Members in favor of splitting the tickets said they should be split because the combined ticket causes cliquey behavior and makes it more difficult to break into SGA. SGA president Alexandra DeBus called the partnering of the executive and legislative branches a conflict of interest because the legislative branch is intended to be a check on the executive branch. The student government also discussed election violations and what systems to use to sanction those who commit infractions during their campaigns. The main debate on these systems revolved around whether intention — intending to commit an infraction — or severity should be more heavily taken into account.
members of the sga vote during a General Body Meeting on Dec. 6, 2023. (Alexa Yang/The Diamondback)