The Route 1 Divide: an unseen border that divides College Park

For students at the University of Maryland, there lies a border that splits the city of College Park into two. This border has no walls and no guards, but it slices through the community like a knife. The “Route 1 Divide” is what students have called the ideological border that separates the students on-campus from the residents and local officials of College Park. 

These two sides have found themselves in an long-stretched battle over noise levels and large social gatherings in off-campus neighborhoods. The rift in the community created between students’ right to enjoy themselves and residents’ right to have a peaceful night has plagued the college town for years. Since 2016, over 200 noise complaint warnings have been issued each fiscal year in the city of College Park, according to city records. 

In an attempt to cut down on noise and the “spillage of parties” in the community, on September 24, the City Council of College Park unanimously passed a controversial amendment to the city code banning social gatherings that cause a “nuisance” to the surrounding area. 

The amendment defines “unruly gatherings” as a party of eight or more persons where underage drinking or other violations occur, or a substantial disturbance of peace is committed, according to the city code. Councilman John Rigg, who represents College Park’s third district, said the ordinance is designed to go beyond targeting noise and meant to help prevent acts that are often a result of large parties, such as public urination and vandalism. 

This amendment was modeled off a similar ordinance that was put in place in the Towson University area. According to Councilman David Marks of Baltimore County, the Towson ordinance has been “extremely effective” and the area has seen more than a 75 percent drop in noise complaint cases in the first two years of implementation, via an email response.

Although the amendment has claimed to be successful in the Towson area by various officials, it is unclear whether it will actually help to bring noise down in the city of College Park. In spite of the September 24 vote to implement the ordinance in the city, this October saw more noise complaints than in years past, according to city reports. 

“I think [noise] has been an ongoing issue after many many years,” said Mayor of College Park Patrick Wojahn. “How to address that, there are a lot of things we are continuing to try to do.”

Over the years, the amount of noise complaints have risen and fallen without consistency. With the coming and going of students each school year and the cultural divide between students and older residents, Councilman Rigg expects the problems surrounding noise in the city to continue for the foreseeable future. 

“We have a noise ordinance, it is around 15 years old, and it has resulted in quantitative and qualitative improvements,” Rigg said. “I am told that the number of complaints have declined, but they haven’t gone away. I think you aren’t ever going to see those go away.”

For some students, the main problem that exists with the new amendment to the city code does not stem from the content itself, but the way in which the vote was passed without much student input. 

Aashish Parekh, a senior chemical engineering major and President of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity was one of many students who attended the Sept. 24 meeting to express their resentment towards the ordinance. During the meeting, Parekh pleaded to the council to work more with student groups to come to a common ground consensus on how to achieve a more peaceful area. Parekh understands the need for noise and nuisance restrictions in the city, but believes the amendment needed more time before being voted on.

“I agree with what they are trying to do, making College Park a better place for everyone… but the subjective nature of the ordinance doesn’t really make it fair… it shouldn’t have been voted on,” said Parekh days after the vote. 

During the Sept. 24 meeting, the ordinance went under numerous revisions due to student and older resident suggestions. Councilman Rigg believes the council did an adequate job in hearing both sides of the debate. 

“We incorporated a lot of [student and community] ideas, but at the end of the day we didn’t agree,” Rigg said. 

This unresolved friction between the council and the students is an issue Mike Mann claims has existed for over two decades.

Mann, who graduated from the University of Maryland in 2003, ran for a seat on the city council as a junior in 2002.   

“I think it was a lot of the same issues that you are seeing today. What was going on at the time, there were lots of little issues, little spats, and there was a seat that opened up on the council,” Mann said. “It was a way to hopefully bridge that gap so there was a student perspective in the city council.”

Mann’s campaign focused on achieving a student voice in the local government, a voice that he, and other students at the time, felt was not taken seriously. 

“It is difficult for a city to operate when such a large portion of its base goes unrepresented and unheard,” wrote Mann on his campaign website in 2001, “Today there is no one out there that represents the students and speaks for the students, therefore students must take the initiative to represent themselves.”

Although the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, Mann believes it enabled the city council to incorporate more student voices in local government. 

After Mann’s campaign, the city council added the Student-Liaison to the City Council position. Dan Alpert, the current holder of this position, claims that the relationship between students and the city council has changed over the years since the position was created. 

While he does believe the city council is generally doing a better job in listening to student input and interests, Alpert does agree that the council handled the recent nuisance ordinance poorly.

“At the end of the day most people will agree that the council handled this situation horribly,” said Alpert. “They brought it in the beginning of the school year and rushed it without talking to many community members and just passed it.”

The city council has taken a number of initiatives, such as bi-annual surveys and the creation of a new student advisory committee to the city council, to listen to more student residents. Although Councilman Rigg continues to stand by the ordinance, he is excited to see student involvement in local government. 

“Around 60 percent to 65 percent  of our community is made up of students, I encourage them to look beyond this one ordinance and participate in other positive initiatives in the city,” Rigg said.