College Park restorative justice commission presents Lakeland reparative roadmap

Maxine Gross, chair of the City of College Park's Restorative Justice Commission, presented the commission's report on harms caused by urban renewal in Lakeland and a set of reparative recommendations organized around the United Nations' framework for reparations.

The commission asked the mayor and council to accept the report and to direct city staff to identify where recommendations fit within existing work programs and budgets. Gross said the work groups have started preliminary conversations with the state delegation, the county council and the University of Maryland and asked the city for a formal charge to move the proposals into implementation.

Karen Brown and Ruth Murphy, commission members who joined Gross for the presentation, laid out specific proposals: a Lakeland Legacy designation to identify primary recipients of reparative measures; creation of a Lakeland Legacy Council to represent displaced residents and descendants; mechanisms to assure fair market value in past sales and to compute compensation for forced displacement; reestablishing visual and physical access to Lakeland's lake; cultural and educational institutions on the historic Lakeland High School site; incentives for owner-occupancy and return-to-Lakeland programs; and a right-of-first-refusal policy for property sales within the Lakeland Urban Renewal District.

Murphy described programmatic elements under the U.N. categories, including medical, psychological and legal rehabilitation supports, memorialization and truth-disclosure measures, and guarantees of non-repetition such as civilian oversight changes. The commission also proposed a Lakeland land trust and asked the city to adopt the Lakeland neighborhood plan as part of long-term protections.

Commissioners said they envision certifying Lakeland Legacy members using a cutoff year (their report proposes people who lived in Lakeland at least 10 years between 1969 and 1981 or direct descendants) so a governing council can be seated. On timing, Gross said the commission set a target year for certification and urged the council to prioritize "education, land and the spaces" as initial pillars.

Council members praised the report and pressed staff on next steps. Doctor Esters asked which actions the commission wants the council to move first; Gross recommended beginning with elements such as reclaiming lake access, educational partnerships and exploring financial compensation paths. The commission noted a property-tax analysis in the full report that identifies increased tax revenues in some redeveloped areas as a possible funding source for programs.

Council and staff agreed to return an action item for formal acceptance of the report and to work on an amended charge for the commission so staff can map recommendations into the city's legislative and capital planning processes.

The council did not vote on specific reparations or funding at the meeting; commissioners requested the mayor and council accept the report and authorize staff to evaluate implementation pathways.