As many of our Laurel City and Laurel service area citizens know by now, the Canadian developers of the West Parking lot of Laurel Park (the Howard County side of the train tracks) are pushing to have the Laurel Train Station abandoned as a train stop and Transportation Oriented Development (TOD) designation in favor of a train stop at their project. The Laurel Train Station was designated as a TOD site by the State.
The Laurel Train Station and passenger train stop has been a part of the very fabric of the City of Laurel and the surrounding community since 1884. It has provided transportation for our citizens to commute to work in Washington DC and Baltimore, and it even provided transportation to many of those coming to the Laurel races starting in about 1911 with the inception of match races during the four county Laurel Fair; they got off the trains at the Laurel Train Station and walked across a bridge crossing the Patuxent River just north of the American Legion Post 60 parking lot to the races. That bridge was swept downstream in a hurricane in the 1960s and the state/race track chose not to replace it.
To facilitate TOD, the City has invested large sums of taxpayer dollars to rebuild Main Street and its sidewalks, improve the streetscape with $600,000 of period street lights, with the Laurel Train Station as the focal point of those efforts. Several years ago Vice President Biden visited the Laurel Train Station to announce a multi-million federal grant to improve the platforms for those that ride the MARC trains to work. Most recently, the City sold the "old" City Hall/Police Station property on C Street, a short walk to the Laurel Train Station, to a local developer who has expended millions to develop an apartment complex that relies upon public transportation that the MARC trains provide. In the meantime the City has not relied upon development dollars for our continuing efforts to get ready for the TOD development that will take place around the Laurel Train Station. When the State designated a developer for the Train Station parking lots for apartment, retail and offices, and improved parking, the City volunteered to support the TOD efforts with Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to support improved parking and infrastructure requirements. Most recently, the City of Laurel Community Redevelopment Authority (CRA) has expended substantial sums to acquire properties along Main Street leading to the Train Station, and has designated two redevelopment areas on Main Street and Route 1 that are closest to the Laurel Train Station TOD to concentrate ongoing acquisition and CRA economic redevelopment efforts.
The Laurel Train Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. If the Canadian developer wants to provide access to MARC trains as an amenity, they should consider working with the State to replace the Patuxent River pedestrian bridge and also provide bicycle access. They shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Citizens who want to see the Laurel Train Station continue as a MARC train stop, they are encouraged to write Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (countyexecutive@co.pg.md.us), County Councilwoman Mary Lehman (malehman@co.pg.md.us), and their State Delegations (the 21st - 21stDistrictDelegation@gmail.com) in the House and the Senate to let them know how they feel.
Michael R. Leszcz
Councilperson At-Large
City of Laurel