Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh (back to camera) waits to address the Bladensburg Town Council Thursday night over its plans to annex a valuable property that Cheverly also wants to annex. Photo by Josh Kurtz.
At a meeting punctuated by civic pride and an element of grievance, the Bladensburg Town Council voted unanimously Thursday night to annex a valuable piece of property that had been ticketed for development by a nearby municipality.
The mayor of the other municipality, Cheverly, said the town would sue to block Bladensburg’s annexation attempts, perhaps as early as Friday.
Bladensburg wants to acquire the site of the old Prince George’s Hospital Center, 113 unincorporated acres that the Prince George’s County government owns and planned to turn over to Cheverly, after pushing through a high-value mixed-use development proposal there.
But Bladensburg officials said they saw an opportunity to expand the town’s footprint, create economic development opportunities throughout the region, and boost the town’s image. And they pointed out that while there had been multiple conversations over the sited between county officials, developers and the Town of Cheverly, there is no written agreement to turn the property, which has been rebranded as Hospital Hill, over to Cheverly after the development is underway.
Bladensburg officials envision working with the same developers and calling the property Bladensburg Overlook.
“We see this as our time to take a bold step forward,” said Bladensburg Councilmember Kalisha Dixon.
The council vote took place after a two-hour public hearing, with residents and officials packed into Bladensburg’s tiny town hall.
Mayor Takisha James said officials from the Prince George’s County government, the county planning commission and the Maryland Department of Planning were invited to testify, along with state Sen. Malcolm Augustine (D-Prince George’s), whose district includes both communities, and Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh. Only Munyeneh showed up — though Prince George’s County Council Chair Jolene Ivey (D) sent a representative to read a statement in opposition.
Most of the rest of the testimony came from about 15 Bladensburg residents, who were almost uniformly supportive of the annexation, calling it a potential boon to the town’s economy and sense of self-worth.
Police Chief Tyrone Collington Sr., Town Administrator Michelle Bailey-Hedgepeth and two consultants, including an expert on annexation law, also laid out their arguments for why the annexation would be beneficial — and perfectly legal. Collington also described all the services his department provides, and said they would become vital to residents and businesses in the new development — if they became part of the town.
Two Bladensburg residents spoke out against the proposal. One complained the process hadn’t been sufficiently transparent, while another warned about the confusion that non-contiguous municipal boundaries cause and the potential consequences during an emergency.
James said town officials were inspired to consider trying to acquire the hospital property after hearing Maryland Municipal League CEO Theresa Kuhns refer to annexation as “the last frontier for municipalities.” She said Bladensburg would not have moved to annex the property if Cheverly had already begun taking steps to do so.
Cheverly officials have said they were advised to wait on annexation until the development on the site was farther along. But James said Bladensburg did not like being excluded from any of the discussions about the development plan with their neighbors in Cheverly and county leaders.
“We’re .34 miles away — we’re not 34 miles away,” she said. “And we have not even been consulted.”
James added that any perception that Bladensburg officials were being stealthy about their desire to acquire the property was the result of them not being taken seriously. She attributed that in part to the fact that all five members of the Bladensburg Town Council are women of color.
“We’ve been underestimated, we’ve been second-guessed,” James said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many things have been ‘man-splained’ to us in the last few weeks.”
In an interview before the Bladensburg council meeting, Munyeneh, the Cheverly mayor, said she was sympathetic to her neighbors’ position — “they feel like Cheverly has received preferential treatment” — but found their annexation gambit an extreme and puzzling decision.
“We’re on their team,” she said. “When they succeed, we succeed. When we succeed, they succeed.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Munyeneh said the proposal for the hospital site crafted by the county’s Redevelopment Agency and two development firms has been tailored to Cheverly’s needs, based in part on the impacts the hospital had on the town for decades. Bladensburg’s annexation attempt “disregards the history” and jeopardizes the project’s potential, she said during her public testimony.
“We’re better than this,” Munyeneh said. “We owe it to our neighbors to work together.”
In an interview before the public hearing, the Cheverly mayor said the town had been working with an annexation attorney and was prepared to go to court quickly to block Bladensburg’s move — and expected Prince George’s County and possibly the developers to follow suit.
But James seemed unmoved by that prospect.
“We’re prepared and we know the law,” she said.