By Katherine Schutzman
The completed Purple Line light rail’s commuter access could spur the development of student-oriented housing along its route, according to a student-conducted study.

Cole Shultz and Nzingha Campbell, two community planning master’s students at the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth, found that the line could potentially facilitate movement away from dwellings directly surrounding UMD’s campus. 

Owner-occupied housing in College Park experienced a 21% decline from 1980 to 2023, indicating an increase in housing units converted to student rentals, according to their study published in April.

“Typically, it really becomes an issue for neighbors and longtime residents when students are living more in single-family homes and start to be in those more enclave neighborhoods,” Campbell said.

“Studentification” refers to the impact that concentrations of students in university towns can have on the commercial landscape, culture and housing markets as the area caters to the student population, according to Shultz and Campbell.

Their research, which Shultz said is ongoing, explored historical studentification in College Park and how it may expand along the completed Purple Line route. He said they plan to release a second article by the end of the year that presents evidence suggesting that new student-focused apartment developments may reduce the number of students occupying single-family homes.

“The multi-family developments that you see on Route 1 have been successful in capturing a lot of the student population,” Shultz said. “The amount of students who live in single-family homes may be smaller than you might expect.”

These new multi-family developments include student apartments such as Tempo and The Nine at College Park, which both opened in 2022.

Campbell and Shultz said commuting would become more accessible with the completed Purple Line, and could promote student migration from campus-central housing to other developments along the corridor. This could also reduce student-occupied rentals in College Park.

Longtime residents and recent alumni have also noticed the drastic development throughout the past few decades along Baltimore Avenue, Schultz said.  

College Park resident Bonnie McClellan, who moved to College Park 18 years ago after residing in University Park for 37 years, said that increasing numbers of rental homes in the city also make it more difficult to feel like a cohesive community, as occupants frequently come and go.

Development along Route 1 has also made the area less attractive, according to McClellan and other longtime residents.

“You think you’re in Manhattan, because it’s all housing,” she said. “It’s not a place where you would gather together. The city tries very hard to allow opportunities for that, but it doesn’t naturally invite you to meet neighbors in your city. It is about the university.”

Despite students’ seemingly overwhelming influence, College Park Economic Development Coordinator Rehanna Barre said balancing the city’s student population with its full-time residents is a priority.

Barre, who graduated from UMD in 2022, said that in her experience as a student, there can be animosity from both sides as students and full-time residents try to coexist and connect to the community.

“A lot of where we make our money in the city does come from the students,” Barre said. “But when they’re gone, if you invest all of your time in the students, who’s investing in people who live here year-round with their kids or their families?”

McClellan said she thinks the high cost of multifamily student housing, like apartments, has driven students into single-family rentals.

The Purple Line will increase campus accessibility for students living in neighboring communities and could provide convenient transportation to more affordable housing options, she said.

If the university’s student population does begin to extend its occupancy along the Purple Line’s route, however, its presence could cause a decline in owner-occupied housing, according to Campbell and Shultz’s research. 

Increased student occupancy along the Purple Line route could eventually promote more widespread student-oriented development and drive out small businesses, low-income families and immigrant communities, Campbell said.

“We wonder and worry that if it becomes five minutes away on the train line, students who may have higher purchasing power … may be able to out-compete and sort of be apprentice gentrifiers in that community,” Shultz said.

Featured Image: The Purple Line route through the University of Maryland’s campus. Photo by Katherine Schutzman.