Council Addresses Rodents and Crime with Franklin Park

Greenbelt City Council held a work session with the owners of Franklin Park at Greenbelt Station on Monday evening, Sept. 19, where both sides exchanged praise and concerns.

City representatives praised Franklin Park for significantly reducing crime, organizing community activities, and greatly reducing tenant complaints to the city. Some also expressed concerns that focused on problems with rodents, insects and water leakage.

Greenbelt Police Chief Jim Craze, Capt. Carl Schinner, and Officer Tim White, liaison officer for Franklin Park, praised the managers and property owners for reducing crime.

Chief Craze said that crime decreased in all categories [Part 1 crimes tracked by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) data] this year through August, compared to the first eight months of last year—except burglary—including a 71 percent drop in assaults and a 59 percent drop in robberies.

Celia Craze, director of Greenbelt's Planning and Community Development Department, praised the managers and property owners for reducing tenant complaints to the city from 426 to 241 this year, compared to last year, as well as for quickly resolving problems. But she said of the 16 most recent complaints, 12 are related to water leaks or pests or both. She also cited problems with the laundry rooms in the apartment basements.

Joe, a Fieldstone Properties LLC representative, did most of the talking for Franklin Park during the work session. Debbie Dillon, Executive Vice President for Fieldstone Properties, which owns Franklin Park, declined to share Joe's and another Fieldstone representive, Ralph's last names. Ralph agreed with her decision, saying, "We have kids."

Joe said he plans to close all the laundry units and replace them with one central facility, eliminating, in one stroke, a lot of problems—crime, vandalism, and maintenance.

There were moments of tension during the work session, especially when Joe expressed frustration with the long lists of inspection citations the city issues.  Mayor Judith "J" Davis told him that the city has a duty to maintain high standards for housing.

Council member Ed Putens jumped in, telling Joe that while he is happy with what Fieldstone is doing and very impressed for the first time, after dealing with a string of owners, that he is not yet convinced that the owners have done what they promised.

Joe said he respectfully disagreed and made clear many challenges still exist, including the need to keep the police there. For example, he cited three attacks within four days of students recruited through the University of Maryland's Chinese Student Association. This put a damper on Fieldstone's marketing effort targeting area colleges.