If passed, the early lease ordinance would prohibit landlords from offering a lease renewal earlier than 180 days after the start of the tenant’s current lease, which falls late February for renters who begin their lease at the end of August.

The legislation, spearheaded by College Park student liaison Nick DiSpirito and deputy student liaison Amira Abujuma, aims to protect renters from pressure to re-sign a lease months before knowing their housing plans for the next year.

Several students shared personal experiences with the council about facing pressure to renew their leases early in the school year.

Junior public policy major Peyton McDonald said she began receiving emails and flyers encouraging her to renew almost a full year before her lease ended.

“The message was clear: Sign now or risk losing your home,” she said. “I was constantly worried that if we didn’t sign in time, our apartment would be taken by somebody else, or that I’d have to move into a different unit and start over.”

[College Park City Council to hold hearing on proposed early lease ordinance]

McDonald said the ordinance would relieve pressure by setting a reasonable timeline for renewals and give students breathing room to evaluate their housing options.

Junior finance major Jonathan Leung faced a similar situation.

“Approximately two months into this school year, our landlord began pestering my roommates and I constantly,” he said.

Leung said the pressure caused “premature panic” for him and his roommates. He added that he shouldn’t have to worry about releasing this early into the academic year, especially when dealing with schoolwork.

But several landlords at the meeting Wednesday night opposed the legislation primarily because of its “good cause” non-renewal and right of first refusal provisions.

Under the “good cause” requirement, tenants would likely have to go to court to prove their actions warrant a refusal to release because Maryland does not have a statewide definition of “good cause.” This means landlords could be incentivized to keep problematic tenants because of potential legal fees and the time it takes for someone to be convicted of a crime.

Lisa Miller, president of the Prince George’s Property Owners Association, said although many property owners would disagree with it, the 180-day restriction is workable. She urged the council to remove the good cause component.

Abujuma, the deputy student liaison, said the good cause language was based on the early lease ordinance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is not the focus of the liaisons’ push. She said they are willing to remove that provision.

Many landlords argued that the policy shouldn’t apply equally to single-family homes and large apartment complexes.

“One size doesn’t fit all,” College Park landlord Jamie Jaseph said. “The high-rise folks seem to be the ones with the pressure tactics. I’ve never done that in 22 years of being a landlord.”

[Holly Simmons, Kelly Jordan win District 2 College Park City Council seats]

Catherine Weber, a senior international relations major, testified in person against the ordinance.

Weber said she lives in a single-family house in Old Town, and signing her lease more than a year in advance gave her and her roommates peace of mind while she studied abroad last spring.

“If this ordinance had been in effect, I would have been forced to try and secure housing while abroad in Barcelona, juggling classes and being in a completely different time zone,” she said.

Student liaison DiSpirito said they will continue to push for 180 days for all city rentals. Landlords shouldn’t have to worry about filling vacancies, he said, because the demand for student housing in the city far outweighs the supply.

The ordinance allows students to sign leases early if they choose, but landlords cannot ask or pressure them to do so, DiSpirito said.

Robert Davis, president of property management company Green Coast Services, asked the council to table the bill to spend more time gathering input.

“I do not want a government entity telling me how to run my business,” he said, adding some practices in the ordinance will hurt his business.

The ordinance will also have an unintended consequence of driving up costs by flooding the market during the established timeframe, Davis said. With more students seeking housing at once, he argued, competition for the same properties could spark bidding wars and ultimately benefit landlords.

The liaisons said the ordinance will improve affordability in the city by allowing renters more time to review more affordable options. Abujuma explained that the ordinance won’t shorten the housing timeline, but shift it.

“Right now it’s the fall frenzy,” she said. “If you haven’t decided housing for in the fall, then you’re just not going to get housing for the spring, or you’re going to get something unreasonably priced.”

She explained that when that timeline shifts over, it might decrease housing prices for students because they will have more freedom of choice.

The liaisons expressed satisfaction with the student turnout Wednesday. Abujuma said it was “extremely phenomenal to see” and added she was also surprised by the landlord turnout.

The council has not yet scheduled a vote on the ordinance.

The legislation, known as the Early Lease Ordinance, aims to protect renters from pressure to re-sign a lease months before knowing their housing plans for the next year.

Under the ordinance, landlords would be prohibited from offering a lease renewal earlier than 180 days after the start of the tenant’s current lease, which falls around March for many renters.

Tenants would then have at least 30 days to accept the offer. After a tenant agrees to renew, the landlord would have 30 days to provide the lease for them to review, and both the tenant and landlord would then have 10 days each to sign and return it.

Additionally, landlords would be prohibited from showing the unit to prospective tenants or renting it to someone else for a subsequent lease period until 210 days into the current lease, unless they can show good cause not to offer a renewal.

[Holly Simmons, Kelly Jordan win District 2 College Park City Council seats]

College Park student liaison Nick DiSpirito and deputy student liaison Amira Abujuma spearheaded the proposal, which was modeled after a similar policy adopted in 2021 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home to the University of Michigan.

Because student liaisons can’t formally introduce legislation, they worked with District 3 council member John Rigg, who presented the idea at a September work session. The council voted unanimously to draft the ordinance during that meeting.

Some landlords in College Park currently ask tenants to commit for the next school year just weeks after moving in, DiSpirito said, making pressure to re-sign their lease an “almost universal” experience for renters.

“I was asked, I believe, last year, in the start of December, which is still pretty early,” he said. “By then, I didn’t know what my classes were going to look like next year, or potential internships or jobs. And like many landlords in this situation, not to fault them either, but there were a lot of phone calls almost every single day to re-sign.”

As students make up the bulk of the city’s population, DiSpirito said they are disproportionately affected by renting policies.

Many first-time renters, in particular, are vulnerable to pressure from landlords because they aren’t aware of their rights or alternatives, he said.

Former student liaisons Gannon Sprinkle and Dhruvak Mirani discussed the possibility of an early lease ordinance when they founded the College Park Tenant’s Union in 2023, Sprinkle said, though the topic was never formally discussed with the council.

He said it was one of the few issues on which they heard no opposition from students.

“Affordable housing, tenants’ rights and an equitable renters’ market was something that was near 100 percent,” he said. “I’m not even sure we’ve talked to one person who disagreed with us.”

[16, 17-year-olds vote in College Park election for first time in city history]

Sprinkle added he hoped people recognize that the ordinance is an “effective and equitable policy” that will benefit all College Park residents.

But at the city council meeting on Oct. 21, landlord Richard Biffl spoke out against the ordinance. He said students themselves often push to sign leases early so they can secure housing for the next year as soon as possible.

“Usually, my tenants are seniors, and they’re not planning to renew anyway. If a group of juniors is interested in the fall for the next year, that’s great,” Biffl said. “I don’t think there should be any impediment to that.”

He added landlords already have strong incentives to retain existing tenants, citing the cost of preparing units for new renters under Maryland’s lead inspection law.

The University of Maryland SGA passed a resolution in October in support of the ordinance.

DiSpirito said the ordinance could also help improve housing affordability by giving renters more time to explore more options before feeling forced to sign early.

“It really eliminates the option of choice, freedom of choice, when you don’t have the ability to see other areas of the city that might be more affordable for you, or maybe another part of the city that’s closer to some of your classes,” he said.

If approved, College Park would become the first city in Maryland with such a policy, DiSpirito added.

The public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers at College Park City Hall.

Simmons received 235 votes, while Jordan received 173 in this week’s general election. They narrowly defeated Christopher Gill, an IT project manager at the National Institutes of Health, who received 170 votes.

Daniel Oates, former president of the Calvert Hills Citizens Association, ran uncontested and received 360 votes to fill the District 3 seat. He will serve District 3 alongside incumbent Ray Ranker, who was re-elected with 372 votes.

The District 2 seats opened after current council members Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney announced they would not seek reelection. District 3 council member John Rigg also chose not to run for another term, leaving his seat vacant.

[16, 17-year-olds vote in College Park election for first time in city history]

The mayor and all council members are up for election every two years. This year, with the exception of District 2, all races were uncontested.

Simmons moved to College Park in 2016 to attend the University of Maryland, where she received her master’s degree in community planning.

She has served on the city’s Committee for a Better Environment and Old Town Historic District Committee, and is currently the Berwyn District Civic Association’s acting treasurer.

Simmons said she sees affordable housing as a top priority for residents and wants to use her background in local government to address those issues.

“[There’s] just a real concern around ensuring that we do have affordable housing, and that the affordable housing that we have is high quality,” she said.

Jordan, a nine-year College Park resident, has served as co-president of the Berwyn District Civic Association and on the Paint Branch Elementary School parent-teacher association.

She hopes to contribute to improving the efficiency of city operations, Jordan told The Diamondback after learning the election results.

[College Park housing program supports local workers with down payment, closing cost assistance]

“I want to make sure that everything is going well with Duvall Field, and in particular, the programs that are going to be set up in that, so that it’s used as much as the city has paid for it to be revitalized,” she said.

In uncontested District 1, incumbent council members Jacob Hernandez and Alan Hew secured their city council seats for another term, receiving 536 and 492 votes, respectively.

Incumbent council members Maria Mackie and Denise Mitchell each also secured another term in uncontested District 4, with Mackie receiving 147 votes and Mitchell receiving 159.

Mayor Fazlul Kabir, who also ran unopposed, was reelected with more than 1000 votes.

The newly elected council members will be sworn in during the Dec. 2 council meeting.

To read more about the newly elected council members, click here.

The 16-year-old attending Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt was one of six voters under 18 who participated in the first election after the city extended voting eligibility to those 16 and older in April.

“It’s important that everyone’s engaged in their community and what’s going on, so I thought it was important that I did that too,” she said.

More than 1,000 College Park residents voted in this year’s general election on Tuesday or during early voting on Sunday, according to city documents. 

Ballots are still being counted as of 10 p.m. Tuesday night. 

College Park has 53 registered 16 and 17-year-olds, according to the city. Two cast their ballots on Sunday and four voted Tuesday, according to city documents.

[Here are the 4 new candidates running for College Park City Council]

Anna Lynch, a 16-year-old junior at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, said voting on Tuesday was special because of her interest in politics.

“It’s just nice because I get to participate in democracy, which is something that’s really important now when our country doesn’t seem to always be upholding those values,” she said.

Lynch was surprised by how easy and quick the voting process was. She expected it would take extra time to verify her documents because of her age, she said.

All city council seats are up for election every two years. This year, IT workers Christopher Gill and Kelly Jordan and urban planner Holly Simmons are competing for both open seats in District 2. 

Daniel Oates, former president of the Calvert Hills Citizens Association, ran unopposed for an open seat in District 3. All other races were uncontested.

While the only contested race was for the District 2 seats, many residents of other districts still showed up to vote on Tuesday.

Mary Anne Hakes, a District 3 resident of more than 50 years, said she votes in every election because it’s her civic duty.

“I think any election is important,” she said. “Because politics, to me, is local, and so what happens locally translates into county, federal, state.”

[These 3 College Park City Council members are not seeking reelection]

Hakes, who chairs the city’s Senior Advisory Committee, said senior issues and bringing the community together are particularly important to her when voting. She said she was happy to vote for Oates, who happens to be her neighbor. 

“He’s been very attentive to things of concern to us, which are things like the storm drain project that’s tearing up a park in our neighborhood and vacant housing,” she said.

Some University of Maryland students also turned out to the polls Tuesday.

Public policy graduate student Hannah Breslau chooses to vote in College Park instead of her home in New Jersey because she spends more time in College Park. 

Breslau, who worked with TerpsVote as an undergraduate student at this university, hopes that increased student voting will strengthen student representation and create greater connection between students and long-term residents, she said.

Breslau said she supports 16 and 17-year-old voters because it allows them to build a habit of voting.

“People build their voting habits starting from a young age,” she said. “I think the younger the better.”

The Live+Work College Park Program, run by the College Park City-University Partnership, provides a $20,000 down payment or closing cost assistance to full-time employees who work in College Park or the Discovery District and purchase a home in College Park. It’s structured as a seven-year, zero-interest, forgivable loan.

Since its start in 2015, the partnership has assisted 104 homebuyers and supported $40.5 million in home sales within College Park, according to partnership communications and outreach manager Kendra McAbee.

[Renowned chef Peter Chang brings Szechuan restaurant to College Park]

Ed Maginnis, the University of Maryland’s assistant vice president of real estate, said members of the partnership’s board discussed how to approach housing issues prior to the program’s establishment.

“One of the observations that was made was that very few employees of the university live in the community,” he said.

The program, previously known as the Homeownership Program, underwent several updates last year, McAbee said.

Eligibility expanded beyond city limits to include employees in the Discovery District, and the program opened to all full-time College Park employees, not just city or university employees.

The assistance amount also increased from $15,000 to $20,000. The loan term was shortened from 10 years to seven years to align with increases in housing costs and how long most people live in houses.

“We want alums to also see College Park as a place that they not only go to school, but they can come back to, or they can stay,” McAbee said.

Maryland housing and community development secretary Jacob Day, who attended Tuesday’s event at Davis Hall, said state grants have been a key part of supporting the program.

[Micromobility users ride through Rhode Island Trolley Trail to promote better trails]

“We are big believers in those state dollars as leverage, those small investments that turn into what’s collectively been $2.65 million to the partnership,” he said.

Day said in the last four years, the state has spent about $360 million on down payment assistance programs and $4.5 billion in mortgages for first-time home buyers statewide.

Stephanie Williams, an academic advisor for this university’s physics department, said she would not have purchased her College Park house in September 2024 without the program.

“There’s no way I was going to be able to get a house, period, let alone in this area so close to commuting to where I work and my friends and stuff without this down payment,” she said.

Melissa Minnifield moved to Maryland from Louisiana in 2022 with her husband after they both accepted jobs at this university. She originally had a tough time finding a place to live, especially with high interest rates and houses being more expensive than expected.

Minnifield bought a house through the program after learning about the program from the university’s employee welcome packet.

[UMD to install air conditioning in Ellicott, Hagerstown halls]

Becky Owen, who was the program’s 100th homebuyer, works for the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine. Her office relocated from Rockville to College Park over the summer, but she wanted to continue living near her work.

Owen said the assistance from the program made the move more financially feasible.

Susan Slingluff Hartmann, executive director of College Park City-University Partnership, said the partnership is exploring opportunities to add additional levels of affordability to the program.

She explained that once potential homebuyers find a house and a mortgage, the program helps from there. But that’s not feasible for many, she said.

“It can be very hard for people to qualify for a mortgage if they have a lot of student loan debt or maybe their salaries are pretty good, but they’re not quite where they need to be to be able to afford this local market,” she said.

Hartmann said the partnership is hoping meet a goal of 20 participants this year. The program has reached 14 homebuyers so far this year.

The lawsuits involved two African American men who worked in information technology at this university’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, a federally funded research center.

The men were terminated in 2018 after the research center underwent changes in sponsorship and restructured into what is now the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, according to court documents.

Duane Shaw, hired in 2012, filed his lawsuit in August 2021, alleging racial bias, exclusion from communication and projects and humiliation at work.

Similarly, Zanaki Renibe, hired in 2009, filed a lawsuit in March 2022 that alleges the university tolerated a racially hostile work environment. In court filings, Renibe cited racial slurs and humiliating interactions in his workplace.

[UMPD detains protesters, student journalists outside event with IDF soldiers]

The cases were consolidated in April 2023. Judges dismissed the hostile work environment claims and removed the center’s supervisors as defendants, but did not dismiss the charges alleging that the university discriminated against the men when terminating their employment.

The Board of Public Works’ vote on Wednesday formalizes the $500,000 settlement, which covers all claims from both cases and attorney fees.

This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that the cases were resolved with no admission of liability by the university. In the statement, the university noted that the lawsuits pertain to events that happened in 2018.

The law office representing the plaintiffs will receive about $433,000 in legal fees, while Renibe will receive $56,283 and Shaw $10,700, according to the board’s agenda.

During the language center’s transitions in 2017 and 2018, dozens of research faculty were laid off with advanced notice, according to court documents.

Additionally, in 2018, the center’s leadership determined that budget cuts to support staff required a reduction-in-force, according to the documents.

Shaw and Renibe were two of four employees terminated, along with another African American employee and one Asian employee. At the time, only six of the center’s 165 employees were African American, according to court documents.

Shaw, Renibe and the other African American employee were allegedly called to a separate building and informed of their termination in the presence of an armed plainclothes police officer, according to court documents. They were not allowed to return to their offices to collect personal belongings, and their building access was immediately revoked, the documents read.

[DOGE website says it cut nearly $15M from UMD grants]

About a week later, the Asian employee was allegedly laid off in the director’s office without police present, according to court documents.

The lawsuits allege the treatment of Shaw and Renibe was harsher than that of other employees, who were given advance notice and informed of their layoffs in their regular work locations.

University officials testified that the three were terminated in a separate building because exempt staff are not permitted to work after notice, and their positions involved access to highly sensitive information, according to court documents.

University officials said it was standard to have police presence outside the building during layoffs, and an officer was present inside the office because of concerns with how Renibe could react.

This university cited an alleged incident where a human resources employee said they felt threatened by Renibe. Renibe said he never acted inappropriately during his employment.

The plaintiffs’ attorney has not responded to a request for comment.

The District 2 seats became open after current council members Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney announced they would not seek reelection. District 3 council member John Rigg also chose not to run for another term, leaving his seat vacant.

All City Council seats are up for election every two years. This year, with the exception of the District 2 election, all races are uncontested.

District 2 includes Lakeland — a historically Black community in College Park — which was devastated by urban renewal efforts from the 1960s to 1980s. All three of the district’s candidates expressed support for ongoing restorative justice efforts and stressed the need to act quickly on the city’s Restorative Justice Commission’s recent recommendations.

Here are the new candidates running for a seat on the council. Candidates are listed alphabetically by last name in order of district.

Christopher Gill 

District 2 candidate Christopher Gill moved to College Park 16 years ago and has lived in different neighborhoods across the city as both a renter and homeowner.

His civic experience includes involvement with the College Park Community Foundation, the city’s Vacant and Blighted Property Tax Committee and the Advisory Planning Commission.

As a council member, Gill would prioritize addressing housing affordability by supporting the expansion of small, secondary homes on the same lot as a primary residence called accessory dwelling units.
While acknowledging concerns that the small dwellings can be misused, Gill said the units would “provide additional rental housing stock without significant construction [and] without massively changing the footprint of the city.”

[These 3 College Park City Council members are not seeking reelection]

He’s also in favor of building new sidewalks and expanding protected bike lanes to promote walkability, and investing in road infrastructure to manage traffic.

Gill unsuccessfully ran to be a District 1 council member in 2017. He moved with his wife and their twins to District 2 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Gill earned a master’s degree in public policy and currently works as an IT project manager for the National Institutes of Health.

Kelly Jordan 

Berwyn resident Kelly Jordan is running to represent District 2 to help College Park build on its strengths.

She has served as a board member and co-president of the Berwyn District Civic Association, where she spearheaded the Spanish translation of the association’s newsletter, she said. Jordan’s four children each attended Paint Branch Elementary School, where she was on the board of directors of its parent-teacher association.

To tackle housing affordability, Jordan said the city should bring in more developments to increase the number of available units.

She also pointed to programs such as the city’s pilot student housing subsidy program, which gave one-time stipends to support housing costs for eligible students.

While younger children have playgrounds, Jordan said she sees a gap in city amenities for older children and teenagers and believes more could be tailored to them.

Jordan believes she would bring valuable skills and experience to the council, while also appreciating the work the city has already done.

“I’m not interested in coming in and changing lots of things. I think that College Park is amazing,” she said. “I just want it to do the things it does better.”

Holly Simmons

Holly Simmons, an urban planner who has lived in the Berwyn neighborhood since 2022, is running for one of District 2’s vacant seats.

Simmons moved to College Park in 2016 to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland, where she earned a master’s degree in community planning. She has served on the city’s Committee for a Better Environment and Old Town Historic District Committee, and is currently the Berwyn District Civic Association’s acting treasurer.

Affordable housing, Simmons acknowledged, is a top concern among residents.

She said the city must leverage county resources to ensure that new housing developments have an “affordable component” and to bolster tenants’ rights.

Simmons also said she could utilize her connections on campus to encourage student engagement with the city government.

[College Park City Council hopes new tax credit incentivizes affordable housing, entertainment]

Professionally, Simmons is a deputy zoning manager in Rockville. She previously served as Hyattsville’s acting director of community and economic development and has worked on urban planning and policy across Prince George’s County.

“My strength lies in the near decade of experience that I have developing and implementing policy,” she said.

Daniel Oates 

District 3 resident Daniel Oates is running unopposed to fill Rigg’s seat on the council after his term concludes.

He has been president of the Calvert Hills Citizens Association for the past four years, where he said he focused on building community through events.

Oates moved to College Park in 2010 to study engineering and public policy as a master’s student at this university. After graduating, he moved to Washington, D.C., but returned to College Park in 2018 to raise a family with his wife, whom he met in graduate school.

For the past 15 years, Oates has worked in international technology policy for the U.S. Department of State.

Oates said his top issues include fostering community and engaging residents with the city, smart infrastructure growth and government transparency.

“The city council hasn’t posted minutes to any city council meeting since September of 2024,” he said. “I would like to see minutes after every council meeting posted.”

Oates said affordable housing is a critical issue, and that he’s interested in talking to the university about plans to address not just immediate, but future student housing issues.

To learn more about the election and how to vote, click here.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that District 2 candidate Christopher Gill has two daughters. He has a son and a daughter. This story has been updated.

Here’s what to know about the upcoming city election.

In-person voting 

Election Day is Nov. 4, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at College Park City Hall. 

Early voting starts on Nov. 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Davis Hall at 9217 51st Ave.

Registering to vote

All residents aged 16 and older registered with Prince George’s County’s elections board are eligible to vote in College Park. First-time College Park voters can register online at voterservices.elections.maryland.gov.

Voters can also request absentee ballots online or at any city building. Absentee ballots must be received by Friday.

Meet the candidates

Candidates plan to participate in two upcoming public forums. The first is the District 2 Candidate and Mayor Forum, hosted by College Park Here & Now, on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. The Student Government Association also plans to host a student-focused forum on Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in Thurgood Marshall Hall.

The District 2 seats became open after current council members Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney announced they would not seek reelection. In District 3, council member John Rigg also chose not to run for another term.

To read more about the new candidates running for city council, click here.

Lakeland, located just east of the University of Maryland campus, was a thriving Black community founded in the 1890s. But between the 1960s and 1980s, a series of urban renewal efforts demolished the majority of homes in the neighborhood and displaced two-thirds of Lakeland residents.

“We’re trying to get wheels moving as fast as we can,” commission chair Maxine Gross said. “A lot of our members are aging, and that’s a really important piece, so we’re losing history left, right and center.”

Gross and other commission members presented a plan to the College Park City Council on Tuesday. The commission was created in 2022 to promote reconciliation and restoration for Lakeland and has given annual updates to the council since.

The report is based on the five essential elements for reparations outlined by the United Nations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.

Proposals under each element include:

• Restitution: Creating a “Lakeland Legacy Member” designation for displaced residents and their descendants, who would be the primary beneficiaries of reparative justice initiatives.
• Compensation: Directly paying displaced Lakeland households the equivalent of $1,000 in 1975 dollars, including interest.
• Rehabilitation: Establishing and continuing community-based supplemental education programs within the Lakeland community.
• Satisfaction: Publicly acknowledging the past harm by installing a memorial at Pierce Avenue and displaying the city’s 2020 resolution that acknowledges its role in systematic racism at City Hall.
• Guarantees of non-repetition: Legally protecting historic Lakeland landmarks, including Lakeland High School, First Baptist Church and Embry AME Church.

Other recommendations included improving public transportation in the Lakeland neighborhood, establishing a scholars program with free tuition to Lakeland legacy members and helping displaced families return as home and business owners.

[College Park advances plan for park to support nature, wildlife]

As for funding the recommendations, the commission suggests the city look to tax revenue collected from Lakeland. The city currently collects about $137,000 annually from the area, which is expected to grow to nearly $580,000 by 2027. The increase is primarily because of Rambler College Park, the housing development being constructed in the area along Route 1 where Campus Village Shoppes used to be, according to the report.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council member Llatetra Brown Esters, who represents Lakeland in District 2, recognized that the work to preserve Lakeland’s history and advocate for justice goes back years.

In 2007, Gross helped form the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, which has since digitized archives, organized community events and published a book on Lakeland history.

“When you talk to people who experienced Lakeland before urban renewal, they speak of a vibrant community, a place with caring people who worked together to meet everyone’s needs, a place where facilities, institutions and services needed for everyday life were right at hand,” Gross said.

[College Park City Council hopes new tax credit incentivizes affordable housing, entertainment]

District 3 council member John Rigg said he wants action quickly, but that the plan’s scale could make it difficult to prioritize action.

He called the recommendations “extremely labor-intensive,” and questioned whether full implementation would require more resources than the city can realistically commit. He suggested identifying “quick wins” as immediate priorities.

College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir said the next steps are collaboration between the commission and city staff to determine a plan for council action.

“This work cannot stop,” Kabir said. “It needs to go into the finish line.”

Council member Susan Whitney, who also represents Lakeland in District 2, said the commission’s presentation pulls together years of work into a clearer path forward.

Whitney said the years of urban renewal don’t seem that long ago, and seeking restorative justice is still important decades later.

“The impacts of this are still affecting the families that this happened to,” she said. “When you lose generational wealth, that is real and that is now.”

District 2 council members Susan Whitney and Llatetra Brown Esters, as well as District 3 council member John Rigg, will not seek reelection for the upcoming two-year term.

Here’s what’s next for them.

District 3 council member John Rigg

After eight years on the council, District 3 council member John Rigg is ready for more personal time.

Rigg, who is chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said he ran for the council to have an impact and get things done.

“One of the big reasons why I’m not running anymore is I feel like I’ve accomplished the things I set out to accomplish for the most part,” he said.

Although proud of accomplishing some bigger initiatives, it’s the smaller impacts that stick with him, Rigg said. Over the course of last year, the city replaced all the playground equipment.

“Just going out there and seeing these little members of our community just having a ball on some new playground equipment, that is just pure goodness,” he said.

[College Park City Council hopes new tax credit incentivizes affordable housing, entertainment]

Rigg added he’s most proud of improving relationships between long-term residents and students in his district. He said the current relationship between the University of Maryland and the city is much more harmonious than a decade ago.

Rigg is the father of two soccer players, one in high school and one in college. With not serving on the council, he plans to catch as many of their games as possible, he said.

He also hopes to stay civically active in College Park and spend more time reconnecting with his creative side through music.

District 2 council member Llatetra Brown Esters

Prior to running for council, District 2 council member Llatetra Brown Esters was involved with the city’s Advisory Planning Commission. Former council member PJ Brennan asked her to consider running in the special election to fill his seat.

She did, and in December 2020, Esters joined the council. Nearly five years later, she said her decision not to seek reelection comes down to balance.

Although she said serving on the council has been a meaningful experience, she would like to focus on other priorities, including work and family life.

Esters, who is associate vice president of student success and dean of students at the University of Baltimore, said she has prioritized fiscal responsibility, safety and economic development.

She added that building a sense of connection and trust with residents, especially in the Lakeland community, has been one of her biggest accomplishments.

“I think where you have a community that has felt such trauma over a period of time, it is no small feat to build some level of trust and to help to support and advocate,” she said.

Public service will continue to be a part of her life, even if it’s outside of elected office, Esters said. Post-council, Ester plans to spend more time volunteering, particularly with food pantries, and fulfill a long-standing goal of learning Spanish.

District 2 council member Susan Whitney

Elected in 2021, District 2 council member Susan Whitney served on the first majority-female council in College Park’s history, a milestone she said she’s especially proud of.

After two terms, Whitney said she decided not to seek reelection because she may be unable to give the position the attention it needs, especially with increasing family and job responsibilities.

Whitney is the budget and operations program manager for this university’s special events office. Before joining the council, she served as treasurer for council member Esters, who later suggested Whitney run for the other seat in District 2.

During her time on council, Whitney focused on environmental sustainability, serving as the council liaison to the Committee for a Better Environment. She also helped pass a plastic bag ban and a tree preservation ordinance, she said.

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She’s especially proud of the progress made toward seeking restorative justice for Lakeland, Whitney said.

“I really wish I had the bandwidth to stay on for a couple more years to really see that through, but I also know that they need somebody who has all their attention,” she said.

She added it’s the relationships she built, with fellow council members and residents alike, that she’ll remember most.

“It’s been a wonderful experience really getting to know people in my community, like I feel like I live in Mayberry now, or something.”

Whitney plans to spend more time with her family, help out with more cooking at home and reconnect with friends and neighbors after stepping down.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that District 2 council member Llatetra Brown Esters joined the city’s Advisory Planning Commission after former council member PJ Brennan asked her to consider running in the special election to fill his seat. She served on the Advisory Planning Commission before she was asked about running for council. This story has been updated.