Prince George’s municipalities form coalition with eye to securing share of Blue Line development

They share a Metro line, they share a ZIP code and they share a dream of revitalized older communities. And, come Saturday, the Prince George’s County towns of Capitol Heights and Fairmount Heights and the city of Seat Pleasant will have something else in common.

They will all be members of the new 20743 Coalition.

The mayors of those three inside-the-Beltway municipalities will meet Saturday to launch the coalition, named for the ZIP code they have in common. Their goal is to ensure that their often-overlooked communities share in the Blue Line corridor redevelopment projects that are scheduled in coming years as part of an effort to redevelop central Prince George’s County.

Saturday’s signing ceremony is meant as a show of unity for the communities clustered along Metro’s Blue Line and the county’s Central Avenue. All three mayors already signed a memorandum of understanding in March for each municipality to share resources “that promote economic development, enhance public services, and improve residents’ quality of life.”

The Maryland Stadium Authority is slated to invest $400 million toward five projects planned for areas near Largo Town Center, Morgan Boulevard, Addison/Seat Pleasant and Capitol Heights Metro stations. The first will be a civic plaza by the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building in Largo, scheduled for completion in December.

One official who plans to be in attendance at the Fairmount Heights Municipal Building for Saturday’s event will be At-Large County Councilmember Jolene Ivey (D).

“I think it’s really important that we’re all on one accord when it comes to using this as an opportunity for economic development and to really push getting good things happening in that part of the county,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “We all have to kind of agree on what that looks like.”

Officials and residents from the three municipalities located inside the Beltway have said for years there has been a lack of economic development, especially when it comes to healthy food choices.

A food desert was created in July 2016, when a Safeway closed at Addison Plaza in Seat Pleasant on Central Avenue, less than a mile from the Washington, D.C., border.

Since that time, there’s been no major food retailer on that road for the almost four miles between the D.C. border and the Capital Beltway in Capitol Heights.

A small full-service grocer called Good Food Markets and Café opened in Addison Plaza in September 202. Because of financial challenges, however, only the café remained open. a year later. The business has since closed.

To help fill some of the void, The Capital Market has hosted farmers markets and various workshops in all three municipalities. Because of the nonprofit organization’s relationship with officials and residents, it will serve as a facilitator to the coalition.

According to the agreement, Capital Market will also “provide quarterly financial reports to all Parties (municipalities) detailing the use of funds and progress on initiative to each municipality.”

“These are three majority African American municipalities … [with] a lot of shared history and culture,” said Kyle Reeder, interim administrative director with Capital Market and a sixth-generation Prince Georgian, who lives in Capitol Heights. “I’m excited to see what the municipalities are able to do together.”

So is Belinda Queen, a community activist who also lives in Capitol Heights.

But at a community meeting Wednesday night, Queen urged state lawmakers from legislative District 25, which includes the neighborhood of Walker Mill in an unincorporated part of Capitol Heights, to make sure economic development does happen.

“The Blue Line corridor is supposed to be for all of us going through Capitol Heights,” she said. “So I need you guys to stay on this.”