Civil Municipal - June 2024

for future development are minimal. “We have a couple of redevelopment opportunities that we’re looking at now, particularly as it pertains to senior living and mixed-income. But one of the detriments of being in the inner beltway is that we are built and are more or less a modern urban environment.” However, Mayor Miller highlights the appealing character of District Heights’ neighborhoods, with its diverse array of styles and personalization. She describes, “If you find a house here, you can pretty much tailor it to the way you want it. What’s most impressive for our neighborhoods is that there are so many different types of housing, and people take pride in their landscaping. It makes it very attractive to people that come through our city or come to visit, they see that creativity.” ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH The city’s focus on economic development is evident through partnerships with organizations like Employ Prince George’s Career Lab, which helps to connect workers and employers in the region. District Heights has also distinguished itself as being the first city in Maryland to move financial management to the cloud. By transitioning from paper-based to electronic document storage, this move opens the door to greater efficiency and transparency when it comes to the City’s finances. District Heights chose to contract with OpenGov Financial, which is widely considered by local governments to be the leading enterprise resource planning system (ERP). This arrangement will be hugely beneficial to the City’s residents, allowing cost efficient services and programs to be more accessible than ever before. “We want to be that hub, where if someone wanted to come live here we would have those wraparound services,” Miller recounts. “Prince George’s County is focused on transit-oriented development. So, we are focused on building out the business part and the resource center to make sure that we are at the hub of whatever it is you want to do when you come to 133 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 06 DISTRICT HEIGHTS, MD