In a worksession with the Greenbelt City Council on Wednesday, February 21, Franklin Park Manager Denise Knight and Laurie Bonner, vice president for operations of Fieldstone Properties (owner of Franklin Park), spoke with council about its operations in Greenbelt West. This article focuses on the public safety discussion.
Bonner briefed council, stating that Franklin Park, which originally opened in 1963, remains 60 years later the largest apartment complex east of the Mississippi. It has 2,877 residences in 246 apartment buildings and 122 townhomes. At the moment, it is 91 percent occupied: a figure likely to increase slightly during spring. So far this year, she noted, they have had only one eviction although their delinquency rate is approximately 20 percent. She explained that their focus is to assist renters who are behind to get back on track.
During the meeting, several elements of public safety were discussed, particularly in reference to recent county-level legislation relating to multifamily rental properties.
Lighting
The topic of illuminating parking lots and walkways came up early and often. Mayor Emmett Jordan raised it initially, noting that the parking lots seem very dark and mentioning that, for example, on Cherrywood Lane, the majority of illumination in the parking lots seems to come from the street lighting on the outside edge of the lots, with the side adjacent to the buildings remaining dark. Bonner replied that they had been working with Pepco on lights that were out or underperforming but without result. She also noted that internal to the complex, they have trimmed trees to mitigate shadowing and have an ongoing program that has added/improved lighting as it progresses through the complex. She also mentioned that they are working with Beltway Plaza management because the shopping center’s lights are now turned off at night along Franklin Park’s boundary with the shopping center, leaving Franklin Park’s Breezewood Drive parking lots poorly illuminated.
Currently planned lighting improvements include Cherrywood Terrace and Cherrywood Court. Franklin Park is carrying out extensive tree trimming so that the lights they have are more effective. Also they have additional lights on order.
Cameras
Prince George’s County recently enacted legislation that requires security camera coverage of rental apartments (see page 9 of the September 28, 2023, issue). Describing the requirements, Bonner said they didn’t want to have a “knee-jerk reaction to an ill-written piece of legislation” so Fieldstone is in negotiations with the county to honor the spirit of the legislation. She pronounced it, however, impossible to comply with the extensive requirements in a six-month period. Part of the problem involves scale – with such a large area (153 acres) and so many apartments, installing such equipment is a major logistical project and significant cost (estimated at $3M to install and $500K annually to maintain).
According to Bonner, the county legislation requires a camera at every ingress/egress point of every building as well as within the public areas and the area around the building. In the brick construction of Franklin Park, installation of the cameras involves drilling, wiring, cloud storage, monitoring and maintenance of many hundreds of cameras. She alluded to the fact that Franklin Park’s classic 1960s garden apartment design is ill-suited to a comprehensive camera coverage requirement, stating that the idea is more aligned with today’s apartment designs which typically have fewer entrances.
Councilmember Rodney Roberts pronounced himself not a fan of cameras everywhere, calling them intrusive and only of use after a crime was committed.
Access Control
County legislation on rental community property access control is also an issue difficult for Franklin Park, which has had problems with groups of unauthorized individuals loitering in hallways. Their 246 buildings each have multiple entry points and 11 or 12 apartments, and the equipment and logistics involved in access control were described as daunting. The management team thought that scaling such a solution to a complex like Franklin Park was not viable. Both the mayor and Franklin Park’s representatives frequently referred to working in the spirit of the legislation – the safety of residents – rather than to its letter.
Crime Trends
Chief Richard Bowers described the evolving crime statistics, noting that crime had increased evenly throughout the city and is up 32 percent since 2022, with vehicle thefts contributing the majority of the increase. He is seeing a similar trend this year. Commenting on car thefts, he felt that department efforts to educate the public on how to avoid having their cars stolen had borne fruit. Although cars are still being broken into frequently, far fewer attempts to steal them are successful. He said that so far (45 days) into 2024, they are seeing a 50 percent reduction in thefts.
He spoke positively of Franklin Park’s relationship with the department. He said that they have a secondary security company with whom the police coordinate.
Knight also commented that it was a concern that juveniles arrested and released were frequently responsible for additional crimes. In response to a question, she said that residents were liable for eviction if they engaged in criminal activity but that many of the individuals arrested were not residents but came from other locations, including D.C. Knight was generous with her praise for the Greenbelt Police Department and described their regular walkthroughs with her to identify trouble spots and consider strategies for mitigating them. She cited Community Officer Erick Alvarez as a major resource.
Responding to a question from the internet about gang activity, Bowers agreed that groups congregated and were watched, but said that although individual gang members might live in Franklin Park, there was no evidence that organized gang activity was based there. He also responded to a question about mental health concerns to note that their crisis intervention team had handled many calls for service.