MIE Properties Inc.'s Bowie community hung up on zoning swap

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 19, 2004 by Robyn Lamb

MIE Properties Inc.'s plan to transform a 400-acre business park in Bowie into a live-where-you-work community has hit a snag.

Sherwood Manor Civic Association and a group of eight residents recently filed a lawsuit against the Prince George's County Council, charging that two text amendments allowing for residential units at MIE's Maryland Science and Technology Center - near the intersection of U.S. 301 and 50 - are illegal.

The County Council struck a deal with Catonsville-based MIE to rezone land in the park for residential buildings, in exchange for the preservation of a plot of woodlands known as Nash Woods, the lawsuit said.

When a government or a county adopts zoning rules, the notion is it's got to be applicable countywide, you can't just tease out one piece of land and pass a law that applies to that. You can't do that, said G. Macy Nelson, the Towson-based attorney representing the civic association.

Nelson contends the County Council struck a deal in which MIE purchased the 100-acre Nash Woods site for $12 million, then sold it back to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in December for $6 million.

In exchange, the county transferred Nash Woods' 598 allowed dwelling units to the business park, which was not previously zoned for residential.

In May, the Baltimore-based developer submitted plans to alter its office park by adding residential and retail to the mix of nine office buildings already there.

There was a swap. [Councilman Douglas J.J. Peters] wrote a letter saying that, Nelson said. We're not saying that he acted in bad faith, we're just saying you can't do what you did. We're not saying corruption and we're not saying bribe.

Peters did not return phone calls made to his office yesterday.

Ramon Benitez, project manager of the MIE development, would not comment on the lawsuit.

The Sherwood civic association and the other eight plaintiffs, residents of Sherwood Manor, an adjacent community of 100-plus homes, oppose MIE's plan because, they say, it will bring traffic-producing residential units to a county that lacks employment but is overly developed.

They are seeking to undo the zoning amendments, which were passed in the last two years. A pretrial conference has been scheduled for March next year.

Nine buildings - part of the park's initial development phase - are up and almost fully leased to a mix of technology, health and professional service firms.

The park has been in the works since the early 1980s, but fragmented ownership, the real estate slowdown of the late 1980s and limited infrastructure put the brakes on its development.

The University of Maryland - originally the planned anchor for the site - sold its last parcel in 2001, the same year MIE purchased a controlling ownership stake in about 112 acres of the 300-acre park.

It is now a partnership among MIE, Robert Depew, Dean Morehouse and Jeff Zell, and Joseph Henderson of Science Center Associates, all of whom own separate parcels within the park.