Naylor Road Metro Station Area Access and Capacity - WMATA.com.

Sectional Map Amendment (Branch Avenue Corridor Sector Plan) established policies and
zoning to encourage mixed-use TOD within a half-mile radius of the Metrorail station. The
plan recommended an urban mix of uses integrated with new office building within walking
distance of the Naylor Road Metro Station. Specifically, the plan designated Naylor Road Station
a Regional Center. Regional Centers are locations for regionally marketed retail destinations,
office and employment areas, higher education facilities, and possibly sports and recreational
complexes serving Prince George’s County. High-density residential may be an option if the
needed public facilities and services can be provided. Regional Centers feature high transit
access. The plan recommended that Naylor Road Station employ the Mixed-Use Transportation-
Oriented Zone.
However, as noted in M-NCPPC’s 2009 Countywide Master Plan of Transportation, retrofitting
Prince George’s County Metrorail station areas in the Developed Tier (such as Naylor Road)
into TOD communities has been a challenge. Many of these stations are isolated from nearby
communities, as they were constructed alongside major transportation infrastructure like
railroads or highways. For example, Suitland Parkway acts as a barrier between the Naylor
Road station and communities to the north and west. In addition, the large amount of
non-developable land surrounding the station—Suitland Parkway, Oxon Run Stream Valley
Park, and Lincoln Memorial Cemetery—limit the development potential of the immediate
Naylor Road Station area.
Support at the state level arrived in 2010, when Governor O’Malley formally designated
the Naylor Road Station, among other locations throughout the state, as a TOD site. This
designation ensures that State resources can assist in the development of plans and construction
of projects at Naylor Road Station, including street improvements such as traffic calming
measures and sidewalks installation and repair. Similar support from the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) arrived in 2010 when the Department issued an
$800,000 Sustainable Community Challenge Grant to M-NCPPC to prepare a corridor action
plan for redevelopment and improved transportation connectivity along the Green Line between
Southern Avenue Station and Branch Avenue Station. M-NCPPC will complete this study, the
Metro Green Line Corridor Action Plan, in 2013.
Recent planning at the regional level supports Naylor Road’s transformation into a TOD center
by emphasizing and prioritizing nonmotorized station access. For example, Metro’s Metrorail
Bicycle & Pedestrian Access Improvements Study (2010) identified strategies to enhance bicycle
and pedestrian access and connectivity in and around Metrorail stations. Metro categorized
stations into one of nine typologies that vary by land use, adjacent transportation network, site
layout, and mode split. Each station typology is paired with specific recommendations that
may be applied to other stations that exhibit similar characteristics. For example, the study
concluded that some of the primary issues for Naylor Road Station, as well as other stations
that share comparable features, include barriers to cycling throughout the nearby communities
and ensuring that future TOD is designed to encourage Metrorail ridership. The Metropolitan
Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) carried this station typology forward into its
Metrorail Station Access Alternatives Study (2012), which examined how to maximize passenger
access to Metrorail stations by 2040 under different scenarios. In MWCOG’s study, Naylor Road
Station, noted for its long-term potential for high-density TOD or planned unit development
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