Friday, March 8, 2024

Density - Dirty Word or Solution?

A history of separation

The nation is ripped by a housing crisis. Especially affordable housing is in low supply, across the US, in Maryland and in almost every local jurisdiction. The causes are multiple. High cost to construct housing, an ever shrinking pool of public housing and rent restricted housing where more units fall out of the restrictions than come into it on average, red tape, "redlining" and the fear of density. 

Suburban fight against new development in Baltimore County
(Photo: Baltimore Banner)

Onerous regulations have been not only been a tool of separating use, race and class for a long time, they also control how many people can live in a given space, in other words: Density. Discriminatory regulations are alive and well to this day, often in the guise of respectable goals. For example: Use segregation has long been seen as a good way to protect housing from  fumes, noise and other impacts of non compatible uses, even though today many industries have become quiet and clean and the livability of places where each use has its own quarter in town have long become a question. Fear of density, however, remains. 

Race and class separation isn't openly pursued any longer, but lives on in regulations and housing production that favors spreading things out. Whole streets or subdivisions see only one type of home which shares a common price point, mandates large lots, lot coverage, and setbacks. The result is the particular "product" that homebuilder prefer and that leads to complete income stratification that too often is also a race stratification: The single family home. Thus hidden discrimination is still rampant, further cemented by lenders and real estate agents which give loans or show certain homes only to certain clients. 

Not so lovely: Underperforming suburban commercial corridors
(Photo: Philipsen)

The ramifications of these mono-cultures manifest themselves in urban design: Rarely can one see rental multi-family housing mixed in with single family homes, smaller and larger homes mixed up or a store in the middle of a residential neighborhood and even schools, post offices and town halls are set aside, far away from people that are supposed to use them. The endless monocultures of single family homes breed owners who defend their status tooth and nail against any change, no matter that older towns, cities and villages with their mix of uses, styles and incomes are often very attractive and in high demand for their authentic character and the high efficiency of walkable communities with close by services. By contrast, the commercial corridors of suburban communities show clear signs of ailing.

The many obstacles to change

The favorite weapon against change in those suburban communities are their ubiquitous "adequate public facilities ordinances" (APFOs). They presumably exist to prevent an overload of infrastructure from too much development, but they are fundamentally based on the very common misunderstanding that density causes overload. In many ways the opposite is the case. Density makes far better use of infrastructure by using it more efficiently, reducing the extent of stuff that needs to be maintained. This becomes obvious every time a snowstorm hits and the plows have a hard time to keep miles and miles of suburban lanes and cut de sacs cleared. Density allows schools that are better equipped with libraries, gymnasiums and auditoria and density also reduces traffic congestion. This last point may seem counterintuitive, but it becomes immediately clear when one compares how many trips are needed and how long the trips are to cover daily needs in a low density suburban setting versus an urban one. The three cars in many suburban driveways are not just decoration, they actually move from all sides to the nearest intersection on streets that don't know redundancy (i.e. alternative routes) and cause massive congestion in spite of double turn lanes, four phase signaling and the almost complete absence of pedestrians. The congestion is then used to prevent any new development inside existing communities, potentially opening up some cultural de sacs and forces more sprawl in adjacent fields and forest, creating yet more traffic.

Beyond these matters of logic,  APFOs provide a convenient smoke screen to block others from come in on the grounds of lacking sewer, school or road capacities. Stifling residential development then begins to stunt the tax revenues that would pay for an improvement of the failing infrastructure.

A train without development: Failing mall next to a transit station
(Photo: Philipsen)

With zoning squarely in the hands of local council representatives, NIMBY pressure is always on them to keep new housing in existing communities at bay, especially denser multifamily housing that could bring "those people" to their neighborhood.  

Re-zoning: The hottest trend?

But the housing crisis has become so rampant all across America that many local governments have begun to rethink their regulations, no longer simply listening to neighbors who don't want to see new neighbors, increased densities, or really, any change in their community. The housing shortage is not only accompanied by missing economic development,  it is the cause of it. People begin to notice: Homelessness has become overwhelming, companies have trouble finding employees, taxes go up to maintain aging stuff without growth when jurisdictions run out of new land. The current course is not sustainable. 

We have a supply and demand problem. Maryland is not unique in this respect. And this is not just a problem for those who are low- and middle-income. Lierman’s report also noted the many stories of businesses turning down potential relocation plans to Maryland due to insufficient workforce housing. Fewer businesses mean fewer jobs and less revenue for the state and local governments. Fewer housing options also means longer commutes, more time on the road, more pollution and less time to help kids with schools.(Peter Engel, Director, Howard County Housing Commission)

With people of middle income jobs not finding housing where their jobs are the often mentioned teachers, firefighters, nurses and EMTs have been priced out along with the salespeople, the mail persons, the roofers, framers and shopkeepers, in short, all the people that make a community work. At the same time changing shopping habits, work from home have made many of the older commercial strips that line arterial roadways in the suburbs all across America obsolete, underutilized or lying entirely fallow. Their look is far from the original suburban dream.

It is in this context that NPR identified new zoning as a hot trend. Is hope on the horizon?

The hottest trend in U.S. cities? Changing zoning rules to allow more housing (NPR)

In response to the failings, some towns and cities have taken zoning for single-family-housing off the books altogether, others relinquished setback rules, lot sizes or allowed accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be used not only by family members but also by renters that can augment the income for a homeowner. All of this would allow a gradual densification of neighborhoods, a nightmare for many. For example the Harford County Executive:

“As ADUs proliferate, a tipping point will be reached whereby all taxpayers and system-users will bear the costs of increased housing density,” xBill 24-001 would immediately increase the allowable density of residential properties in Harford County, resulting in significant known and unknown costs and other impacts affecting all residents and taxpayers countywide.” (Executive Cassilly).

This fear mongering is silly and describes the opposite of what happens. Properties with ADUs would certainly be assessed higher and yield more tax income. 

Hope and improvement is especially bright in the commercial zones where failing malls and their giant parking lots have been repurposed for denser mixed use. Mall conversion has almost become a national sport. Converting inward looking shopping bunkers, surrounded by a sea of asphalt, into new mixed use "town centers" which resemble remarkably those of traditional towns has become a success story: A grid of small streets, curbside parking, outdoor restaurant eating, small parks, a central plaza with a fountain or a skating rink and shops underneath apartment buildings and townhouses with some office and services here and there are elements that make attractive places, boost economic development and bring housing choices previously not seen in the suburbs. 

Demographic shifts to ever smaller households make these mixed use centers not only economically viable but also necessary. Regulation and code adjustments help things along: The fire code now allows four story wood framed buildings on top of a one or two story concrete base for stores, offices or restaurants and local mixed use zones make it possible for developers to build them. 

In some cities such as New York, Denver and San Diego four or five stories of apartments above stores are now the most common building type under construction, the same is true around many older suburban malls. Still some jurisdictions cling to the outmoded mono-culture sprawl model of the fifties. 

Current bills and Populism in the Village

Political populism has taken a hold in the suburbs as well: populists go to war against rezoning initiatives. They insist on the old "Euclidian" zoning that keeps everything nicely separated and make additions, accessory dwelling units, modular or manufactured homes dirty words. Subdividing larger houses or the adaptive reuse of old abandoned shopping centers into multi-family housing is a populist" "southern border" that needs to be shut down.  In Baltimore County a single councilman can block mixed use instead of a derelict mall right next to a rail transit stop just because it isn't allowed by the current zoning code. He can also block re-zoning or a planned unit development. The regulations lay both controls in the hand of a single district representative because the others defer their own judgement out of "councilmanic courtesy". 

When the Baltimore County Executive thought he could cut through the logjam with a bill that would allow mixed use (i.e. residential use) in business districts by right as long as they sit in one of the redevelopment nodes which the new masterplan defines, he ran into a buzzsaw of opposition of the "no apartments- no compromise crowd" combined with almost unanimous animosity by the council members who felt they were circumvented. Even after he announced he would rescind the bill, two councilmen still snubbed him by removing critical nodes in one case and all nodes in the other from the masterplan. The removal of the nodes was like cutting the legs off from the Masterplan 2030 in the last minute. The plan had been in the works for over two years, had passed the Planning Board and had gone through many public meetings. (How to make a mockery of planning). A "compromise bill that leaves all the power with the council is already in the crosshairs of the populists even before it is officially introduced.

No small wonder then, that the State is striking back with a very remarkable bill currently wending its way through the Maryland legislature: SB 0484

This state bill put together by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and M-DOT requires local jurisdictions to allow new manufactured homes in single-family zones and increased densities in specific zones for affordable housing projects. The bill prohibits a jurisdiction from imposing unreasonable limitations or requirements on a qualified affordable housing project including requiring more than one public hearing and unreasonable restrictions based on adequate public facilities laws and requires local jurisdictions to allow specified densities on property formerly owned by the State, property within one mile of a rail station located in the State and land that is wholly owned by a nonprofit organization. 

The legislation is a small step into the sanctified ground of local land use control. But land use, like all other local power, is given by the state and can be taken back by the state when it is abused. Local restrictions on housing production are harming the state as a whole, working against the greater good, causing hunger and exacerbating poverty for hundreds of thousands of Maryland residents, driving out-migration from the state, slowing the economy and reducing tax revenue. (Peter Engel, Howard County Housing Commission)

Strong words from a public official, but true. Anyone who has followed land use discussions in the State of Maryland (or anywhere in the US, really) knows that local governments cherish nothing more than their rights to control land use. Any attempt of the State to get into that privilege has always been met with open hostility. Yet, the bills sailed relatively unscathed through committee hearings thanks to careful coordination with the Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) and the Maryland Municipal League (MML) by Housing Secretary Jacob Day who was the mayor of the town of Salisbury before where he had unleashed a true housing boom (Here is Home). Now State Housing Secretary, Day described the purpose of his housing legislative package on the radio station WYPR. Referring ton the housing crisis he said that "on a scale of severity it can't get much worse" referring to 25% of Maryland renters paying 50% and more of their disposable income on housing.

In his 2022 "State of the City" address, then Mayor Day reported the success of his initiative:

Homebuilders, landowners and real estate developers responded to overtures by the city over the course of a 90-day window for proposed projects with $1.4 billion in new housing proposals. According to Day, that is a 175% increase in the total existing housing in Salisbury. That also represents a 67% increase in the total assessable base of the city. (Delmarva Now)

The bill still needs to be voted in both chambers in Annapolis. The sheer existence of the bill, though, shows that the housing crisis is not only recognized but that all levels of government begin to act on it. Density is no longer just a dirty word.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Related on my blogs:

                    How to make a mockery of planning 

                    A bill that could make zoning more inclusive 

                    Why "lovely suburbia" is the cause of many troubles

                    From American Icon to Pariah?

See also my article on Bloomberg's CityLab: 

When suburbs go to war with transit

State Housing bills currently under review:

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

How to make a mockery of planning

The future will never be what we want it to be unless we plan it carefully. This is the purpose of professional planning and especially the purpose of 10-year master plans which are mandatory in Maryland. Masterplans are supposed to define the long-term future of an entire county or city, connect aspirations, regulations and resources into a long-term roadmap that provides transparency, predictability and guides all future actions, including resource allocation.

Bill 03-24 withdrawn, masterplan gutted. Now what?
Baltimore SUN 2/21/24


This is a lot. Which is why Baltimore County needed two years to complete its 2030 plan. Four years late, it finally was on the docket of the County Council on Tuesday to pass through the last gate, its final adoption. Alas, through a slew of amendments from every single councilman (there are no women in Baltimore County's Council) the vital parts of the plan were shredded before it was adopted. The more then two year process was snubbed with radical changes that the public never saw, let alone could comment on, and to which the professional planners could not respond.

Yes, there were some good and meaningful amendments, but especially two of the three Republican council members used the opportunity to thumb their nose to the Democratic County Executive and his planning staff. By removing the most meaningful element of the plan, the redevelopment nodes, from their district they neutered the plan. Wade Kach did it for eliminating and modifying several controversial nodes, but councilman Crandell took the cake: He asked for removing all the nodes in his district. Of course, the council could have voted down such an egregious attempt of turning two years of professional work into a meaningless tome by rejecting clearly spiteful amendments which  were clearly not based on any planning metrics. Yet, "councilmanic courtesy" prevailed once again, and all but chair Patoka gave the nod to even this rather frivolous amendments. 

This charade took place in the context of the Olszewski administration's bill 03-24 which would have allowed residential use in business zones, provided they were located in one of the redevelopment nodes. I wrote about this bill in this space before. 

The principally good bill was marred by a flawed  introduction which clearly soured the the mood of even the most sympathetic council members. Yesterday, then, in a late attempt to save at least the masterplan, the Executive promised to withdraw the bill in favor of a new bill to be introduced later. The idea appears to be to create mixed use overlay zones that gives the council a choice for each node whether or not to apply the overlay. 

The result of all this political sausage making on a topic that should be guided by facts, statistics, data and clear objectives and principles is that now the masterplan is in ruins and the mixed use bill withdrawn. Whatever overlay bill would be meaningless without nodes. That is especially apparent for Lutherville Station, a failing mall next to a light rail station (See here and here) which had become the posterchild of the entire redevelopment concept of the masterplan and of how outmoded current county zoning really is. A mixed use development proposal has languished there for years due to the councilman's objection and a small faction of the community yelling "no apartments-no compromise". 

The systemic problems that the Exec's bill and the masterplan tried to address remain, of course. They have been compounding for decades, whether it is zoning, transit, transit oriented development or mixed use. 

The Council may feel they achieved a victory when they defeated bill 03-24 and knocked the legs off under the masterplan, but it actually acted to the detriment of the County at large.  Without a strong resolve to add mixed use and housing in those failing commercial corridors all across the County, no matter whether an individual member may object to it for parochial reasons, the County will not be able to comply with the HUD mandate for affordable housing. 

Just as the masterplan is supposed to do, one needs to see the bigger picture, which is

  • A lack of quality walkable, attractive mixed use communities that other jurisdictions have and that people want to see
  • A glut of underperforming low quality commercial corridors that drag down adjacent communities
  • A significant housing shortage.

Auto oriented ailing commercial corridors forming the
forming the "geography 
of nowhere (Liberty Road)
As a consequence, middle class, middle housing people are not only not coming to Baltimore County, they are actively moving out. This hurts the County's tax base, its workforce and its school performance in the same way as this type of out-migration has hurt the City for decades.

The council now has to show that it can actually do better than revenge zoning and spite and solve the very real problems Baltimore County clearly has.

The State, meanwhile is moving along with its own bills intended to resolve the housing crisis by forcing jurisdictions who keep stalling into allowing more housing.
Baltimore SUN 2/21/24


Klaus Philipsen, FAIA


Thursday, February 1, 2024

HarborPlace Design Review - Round 2: More Questions

The HarborPlace design team (architect Gensler and Landscape Architect Unknown Studio presented to the City's Design Review Panel (UDAAP) for a second time today and presented the memorable moment when a team that was sent packing in the first round only to came back with the exact same design  expecting a different outcome. 

To be fair, in the initial review UDAAP didn't so much criticize the design as the lack of a process that showed how the team arrived at the design and the absence of submittals required during the concept plan review. In today's meeting those omissions were filled and the UDAAP process "rebooted" and the second session is considered an extension of the first.  

UDAAP minutes of 11/16/23: How do the streets to the north intersect with the project? The team has not shared what happens at these key nodes. Are they being maintained as entry points? Will they be redesigned?  How does that edge interact with the development?

There needs to be a much more rigorous investigation of the possibilities with regard to the massing and placement of buildings. There's absolutely no telling why the 2 towers are positioned where they are on Light Street, why they are on one side and not the other. 

The team is encouraged to challenge the morphology around the forms as they develop – provide more analysis on how these forms evolved from the initial concept and why specific locations were chosen over others. • The proposed buildings could be placed anywhere in the world; what about this site in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has shaped the buildings? If the team feels the building is in the wrong place, then it can be shifted. If not, then show the Panel why it is properly located. Either way, it needs to be studied for that conversation to happen. § Based on studies of the building form, the environments and public space will shift again and need to be solved. There is quite a bit of work left ahead for this project. The team is encouraged to be flexible as the process continue.

On the first day of February the team returned with the exact same design but with a lot more material to explain why the design looks the way it does. 

UDAAP usually wants to see and participate in how a project evolves. The reverse process in which a completed design is explained after the fact was highly unusual. An observer was left with the nagging impression that sketches and explanations were offered to justify a design that had already been completed and couldn't be altered and that some of those images may have even been produced for this meeting and not as part of the design evolution. Reviewer and architect Pavlina Ilieva observed that "Normally at a presentation of the masterplan concept level not so much is already realized" 

Nevertheless the explanations were illuminating and UDAAP was appreciative of the effort,even though not entirely satisfied that things have to be the way they were presented. 
In all, UDAAP members once again told MCB and lead architect Gensler that revisions were needed to their highly debated plan to redo the city's iconic Inner Harbor site.
And that includes the "character" of the project itself, says Osborne Anthony, a UDAAP member.
"I get the feeling just looking at it, that it’s beginning to take on an air of exclusivity and I’m a bit concerned about that," Anthony said. "In my mind, Baltimore is not chic. It’s a gritty area, it’s blue-collar. Its history stands for itself." (BBJ)

Below I will show most of the images that were presented as screenshots to explain the design, many of which had not been previously shared. Where applicable I share design reviewer comments per my notes. 
(All images MCB)


Birds eye view of the assembly of proposed buildings
Pavlina Ilieva comment: A building like the sail needs room to breathe. It needs space around it.
Ground level view from near where the Constellation docks looking southwest
.Pavlina Ilieva comment: What will this look like on a Tuesday when the crowds aren't there? How does this space feel like when the people are not there.? Will it have intimacy and feel welcome. What will people do there?
These framework sketches are illustrative of a mental construct that guides the later design. 
"Big Water"

Details of the Freedom's Port  Plaza bringing water towards the city

The idea behind the Freedom's Port Plaza. Sharon Bradley comment: Sharon Bradley: The Freedom Park works well as an arrival point but needs to express its topic in the materials .  Be careful of over-programming the water.

showing the footprint of the building outlines
Pavlia Ilieva comment: the disciplines really interacted I am sure not that the buildings landed and then the open spaces were made to mitigate them rather than the buildings being actually derived from a master concept.
Sharon Bradley comment: The water should not be overprogrammed

This plan shows the existing pavilions overlaid on the proposed buildings

This image shows HarborPlace in the context of the overall promenade
Pavlina Ilieva comment: "Colonizing the water" doesn't have to be all at HarborPlace, you have the entire promenade for water access.

This is a section through the high-rises and across Light Street
Kevin Storm question: Where is the parking? Response: Parking would be under or wrapped.
Panel question: Would there be affordable housing. Response: Yes, 10% affordable units at 60% AMI per new city code.
This framework sketch shows the idea of echoing the marshes that were originally around the Baltimore Harbor. Pavlina Ilieva referred to this sketch as a concept that much better than the completed design shows how buildings could be part of a landscape.

This rendering shows the upper and lower promenade next to the
 proposed office building. Pavlina Ilieva question: What is the first floor use of the building. Response: Undetermined. Pavlia Ilieva comment: I question that the masterplan logic requires that the spaces they create with the connections need to be filled with buildings. This was never interrogated . The logic of "how do we we fill the parcels with buildings is most problematic with that little building next to the WTC. In the composition it looks like a space filler. You don't have to fill the space on the ground with buildings. It could be a park.
"Public realm

Public Space and retail level interface

Public Space and retail level interface
Pavlina Ilieva comment: The design is too much about movement and not enough about being in a place. Where is the "there"?

Pratt Street section today and proposed

Light Street section today and proposed
Ilieva question: What is your option if these public street realignments don't come through?
 Response: Many public space improvements especially along the promenade are needed, whether we develop or not. See also Waterfront Partnership's Promenade Report. 
Comparison of the water edges different cities
Osborne Anthony comment: For your precedents why don't you go to Fells Point and tell us what you learn from there. I am concerned about an air of exclusivity. Baltimore is not chicque, its gritty. This needs to be reflected in the program and the uses. Try to capture "The true cultural tapestry of Baltimore".
Proposed building heights dip towards the Freedom's Port Plaza

Diagram of the connections to the water via street grid extensions
Osborne  Anthony's comment: You open up the roadway aligned viewsheds to the water and then what? There is no gathering space or recognition of arrival.
Same for pedestrians arriving at Pratt and Light. How do you carry forth into the ped circulation at Pratt and the connection to the stadia. Who are the users of the IH, past, present and intended?
Where are you key points of access after parking, by transit? 
Proposed floating sundecks and wetland-islands. 

public space at the Sail building

Conway Street corridor, view before and after

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Friday, January 26, 2024

Charting the Future of Downtown Baltimore

On a recent winter Friday only a handful of lunch guests found their way into the B&O Brasserie on Charles Street. But the Architecture and Design Center across Fayette Street located in Mies van der Rohe's Charles Center building in a space once occupied by Burger King and then Staples was filled to capacity by folks who cared about the future of downtown. 

In spite of new development, downtown feels empty
even at noon on a Thursday (Photo: Philipsen)

The occasion was that the Baltimore City Planning Department had invited design professionals and stakeholders to a "design charrette" for all of downtown, from the Inner Harbor all the way up to Penn Station and from Martin Luther King Boulevard to President Street. This design workshop is part of a series of such events that the department wants to host towards an update to the Baltimore Comprehensive Plan of 2006. Doing this now, the City is a full 8 years behind the State required 10-year update cycle. The update has been in the making for a while and becomes more urgent every time another large project pops up that would benefit from a guiding framework plan, most recently the MCB proposed HarborPlace development. 

The event theme is “connecting our assets” and our starting point will be the recently developed ULI recommendations for Downtown Baltimore. The charrette will begin with a brief presentation covering the high points of ongoing plans and development in Downtown Baltimore, followed by break-out workshop style sessions.
The break-out sessions will be topical and geographical, and teams will be multidisciplinary. Teams will prepare recommendations and pin up their work for review. The charrette will conclude with a gallery style public open house to gain additional public input. (From the invitation)

However, the question hovering over the charrette participants is much bigger than the Comprehensive Plan update. The big question is the future of downtown, not only in Baltimore but in cities around the country, and, indeed, the world. Architect Davin Hong had set the stage with an editorial in the SUN

Charrette Poster 
If you were to walk around downtown Baltimore today, you may feel a little uncomfortable. With foot traffic noticeably sparse and storefronts empty, many streets feel somewhat abandoned and unsafe. The environment is missing the level of activity you would expect in a dense urban setting, all of which is the inevitable result of decades of economic decline. (Davin Hong, AIA)

COVID not only slowed the progress on the new Comprehensive Plan to a crawl, it also did a number on downtown, chiefly because the office workers who were initially forced to work from home were unexpectedly reluctant to come back. This in turn translated into even more retail and gastronomy failing, obviously a mechanism that is not limited to Baltimore. How much it applies to cities across the nation and the world depends on many factors, including demographics, the jobs offered in cities and how easy it is to get to them, whether a city is a tourist magnet and to what extent downtown had already been transformed from strictly office use to also being a neighborhood with apartments and condos. As a result of all these factors, some cities were hit harder, some less so. Cities are current trying to get the data to understand what is happening. Office and retail vacancy rates are regularly reported, but how many people come for how many days to work in downtown is harder to determine. 

One recent study compared cell phone data which indicated how many people are moving  through downtown before, during and after COVID. This study put Baltimore at an astounding 95% of recovery,

Planning Director Chris Ryer speaks to the charrette participants
(Photo: Philipsen)

ranking it second after San Diego. Eye level observation, however, tells a different story. Empty sidewalks, boarded up stores and fewer and fewer restaurants. Cynics attributed the cellphone data to the many homeless people that reach record numbers in many cities, especially San Diego. Other indicators are parking usage rates, transit ridership and hotel bookings. In no instance have the Baltimore numbers recovered to the pre COVID levels of 2019.

For the charrette the reporting on data fell to Claudia Jolin, Vice President of Economic Development at the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPoB). In the chirpy manner that is customary for DPoB she presented a few facts and figures from the various reports her organization has amassed, including the Analysis of Market-Rate Housing Demand in Downtown Baltimore Neighborhoods and Adjacent Areas and a ULI report from 2021, the 2018-28 investment forecast  including that from 2018 to 2028 6.5 billion of investment are in planning, construction or completed, that about 1000 units are underway in "residential conversions"

New apartments in downtown (Paca Street)
(Photo: Philipsen)
 (from office) with "nearly 25 completed projects centered around Downtown living". The forever stalled "Superblock" is finally moving through an actual review process with a new team and design and about 3000 employees are being relocated from the State office complex to downtown. Looking forward, the DPoB housing analysis estimates that the downtown area should be able to absorb an additional 1,250 units annually over the next five years. 

Downtown was long heralded as the fastest growing census trackin Baltimore, however, the census facts are more nuanced as the DPoB housing reports notes:

According to 2022 estimates, 41,998 residents live in the Downtown Statistical Area (DSA), approximately 787 residents less than the 2017 population of 42,785—an estimated drop of 1.8 percent over five years. However, the number of households in the DSA increased from 19,140 in 2017 to 19,388 in 2022, a gain of 1.3 percent.

After downloading these facts and figures, the crowd broke into 9 study tables separated by 6 geographic areas.  Each table had a moderator, sketch paper and a map at the ready in the usual charrette manner. With architects, planners and landscape architects dominating the scene, all kinds of diagrams and sketches emerged quickly which were then pinned on display boards, presented and explained by the table leaders and open to public review over beer, wine and snacks. 

Sketch showing high priority pedestrian routes in yellow
(Photo Philipsen)

True to the theme of the evening "connecting our assets", many sketches and ideas focused on connectivity and the walking experience in downtown. One group led by Bryce Turner who is part of the MCB design team for HarborPlace suggested a walkway right through the convention center that would act as an extension of Camden Street from Oriole's Park all the way to HarborPlace, giving pedestrians a direct route after ball games and allow conventioneers a safe and direct route to the Inner Harbor as well. One group proposed a big new open space west of Oldtown, others spoke about the barriers that need to be overcome on all side of downtown to connect back to the neighborhoods. Architect Peter Fillat minced no words when he reported about the area around the refurbished Arena; "All those walk connections in the area suck", he stated.

Table group at the charrette (Photo AIA)
Sharp Leadenhall community leader Betty Bland Thomas spoke about how I-395, the Federal reserve and the Convention Center have cut her community off from direct access. A view on the map confirms a whole serious of large urban renewal type super blockages that starve downtown from pedestrian flow from the south. 

The Planning Department's downtown charrette showcased visionary leadership, uniting our community to collaboratively envision the future of our beloved downtown. From pragmatists to dreamers, Baltimoreans expressed deep passion for the future of our city center, finding a platform for diverse aspirations in this event.(Claudia Jolie)

The hosting members of the Planning Department, Renata Southard and Caitlin Odette now face the task to incorporate the ideas and concepts into the emerging Comp Plan. A synopsis of the charrette is promised to appear on the Comp Plan website soon. Hong in his editorial puts a lot of stock in a good masterplan:  

A visionary master plan fully embraced by the state, city, Downtown Partnership and Greater Baltimore Committee can potentially make transformation possible.

The gap between the massive amount of development that, indeed, has happened in downtown including the near 40,000 people that call the area home and the daily experience of downtown as devoid of the lively vibrancy we associate with successful downtowns remains a somewhat unresolved mystery. Why can't Baltimore sustain more retail and restaurants in its downtown? Why does neither the refurbished Lexington Market, nor the remodeled highly successful Arena nor the many new downtown hotels and apartment buildings spawn vibrancy and eyes in the street? Why do the sidewalks remain empty and the desire of retailers to open shop here absent, even when the folks that now work from home are largely compensated by the influx of State office workers who relocate from from State Center? 

The unofficial answer is crime, or at least the perception of it. Add to that the principally welcome fact that the gaze of recent mayors has shifted from a fixation with downtown (for example under Schaefer) to a new focus on the well being of neighborhoods, and it becomes clear, that Baltimore's downtown can by no means be assured of a bright future.  

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Downtown transit rider in front of abandoned department
stores: Waiting for Godot?
(Photo: Philipsen)

Related on this blog:

Is Downtown Baltimore Doomed? (2021)