What makes citizens suspicious about government and developers (with current updates)

The bad reputation that government and developers currently have in many quarters is a drag on the well being of cities, towns and villages because they cant exist without either. The more disparities in communities and neighborhoods increase, the more the popular assumption flourishes that corruption and sleazy backroom deals are the cause. Since national trends such as income disparity are mostly not driven by local decisions, the temptation to identify a tangible culprit is understandable but leads most often to inaccurate accusations. Even the infamous redlining maps were not local but issued by the federal Housing and Urban development offices of HUD. Still, local government should set a standard of openness and fairness to expunge the corruption narrative through transparency and predictability, two characteristics favored by citizens and businesses alike.

Economic segregation in the Baltimore Towson Metro area between 1970
and 2010 on the household and the neighborhood level

But there are cases where the procedures and deals are so obtuse and hidden, that they tend to taint the entire picture. Two recent cases are located in Towson, both involve Planned Unit Developments, (PUD) County Government and (initially) the same developer, even though the two situations are otherwise unrelated and have each their very own trajectory.

The one is the saga of Towson's Gateway development which involves a firehouse, open space, trees, a gas station, a convenience store and what seemed to be a great way to have a cake and eat it, too. It started in 2013.
The other is Towson Row, a huge project that was supposed to put Towson on the map as an urban destination on par with Bethesda or Silver Spring, places that turned from sleepy suburban outposts to vibrant urban places with busy streets all day and evening. While opinions about Bethesda as a precedent differ among businesses and residents, there was consensus to give Towson a more walkable and active downtown with vitality as a key ingredient to make streets safer and more enjoyable.

Both projects are currently most notable for what is not happening and for what they are not addressing.

Towson Gateway: Originally proposed development

In the case of the Gateway, what's not happening now is a large Royal farm gas station on which community and developer never saw eye to eye. The developer points out that the the lot in question is surrounded by car oriented facilities such as another gas station and a diner with parking in front and that their proposed development was entirely compatible. The community sees the property entirely differently, namely as a symbol and doormat for what the future Towson should stand for.  They point to the downtown zoning district which ends precisely with this lot and which doesn't allow gas stations. The community was so upset with the PUD introduced by local Councilman David Marks as a tool to wiggle out from the gas station restriction, that the local councilman eventually filed a motion to withdraw support for the PUD, a pretty unusual move for somebody who himself has introduced the PUD.  The council responded in an unusual manner as well by breaking with the tradition of councilmanic courtesy in which the council usually follows the lead of the member in  whose district a project is located. The council rejected Mark's motion and submitted itself to a compromise crafted by Councilman Tom Quirk from Catonsville whom Executive Kamenetz had asked to act as arbiter.

In the compromise the developer agreed to eliminate the gas station but also asked for more time to put a new deal together and suggested that the purchase prize should be lowered to account for the loss coming from the delay and having to undo whatever they had prepared to date. This, in turn threatens to undo how the Executive had envisioned the deal from the onset, namely that the sale of the lot would pay for the new firehouse and would even have a bit of money left. Of course, the deal had one huge inherent conflict right in its DNA: The ability to realize the purchase price of $8.3 million was contingent on the county approving the construction of a gas station not permitted by the property’s zoning.
Since the new firehouse is long complete and active, the County is now on the hook. The initial Gateway deal expires in 2018. Late in November the SUN reported that  the County Executive had extended the deadline by five years already in July and without asking the council. Promptly the harmony after the compromise ended and new accusations began to fly. Suspicions are heightened by a whole series of unfortunate missteps:

Towson Gateway protest about tree removal

• The administration's initial intent to build the new fire-station on a green space that the community wanted to see protected (another site was found).
• The County's acceptance of a proposal that included gas pumps even though they don't comply with the zoning for the site. 
• The County's cutting 30 trees  and doing partial demolition on the site in April of this year even though  the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations assures that the sales document stipulated the transaction "as is" and the PUD stipulated that the trees should be maintained. Caves Valley Partners had indicated during the development review process that the trees were not compatible with its proposed development plan

The other Towson project roiling Towson, Towson Row, announced in 2013 as well,  is much bigger (1 million square foot) and is precisely the type of project for which PUDs are envisioned: Stretching over many parcels and requiring a set of mixed use urban buildings which the County zoning code never envisioned. Although the density and scale of the proposed project shocked some anti development community members who  tend to wave the density and traffic flag across the nation whenever development is proposed, the project was seen by many others as bringing the needed critical mass to Towson allowing attractive retail and vital streets. In spite of intense interest during public meetings and some critical questions about how much public open space the project would provide, either on-site or off-site (or via payments), the project moved  through the approval process pretty smoothly. (The developer says community appeals delayed the project by a year).

Initial Towson Row rendering (Caves Valley Partners)

When in 2015 two entire large city blocks were flattened, to make space for the new development, 5 acres in all, everybody thought now the project was real. Except, after the demolition not much else happened and eventually rumors began to fly. The developer explained that unexpected large rock formations made an underground garage impossible and sought to amend the PUD to re-arrange things without underground parking. During the re-design there no work on the site, except some utility relocation. Then, in May of this year Greenberg Gibbons joined the development team as the new lead fueling the general assumption that now, with the additional horsepower under hood, construction would commence in earnest. That didn't happen. Anybody willing to travel a few miles south into the city could see how Caves Valley was pulling off a mixed use development of similar size without a hitch. Stadium Square has completed three large buildings to date.

With the year nearly coming to an end and no visible activity on the Towson Row site, news broke that Baltimore County will aid the developer with a complicated $43 million tax deal which, in a large part, trades tax breaks the developer would be entitled to after completion for cash up front spread over the next 5 years. It is estimated that  the County would break even on $26.5 million forgone tax credits 12-14 years after completion. The $16.4 million portion tied to hotel room occupancy taxes are a straight up subsidy described as a "hotel tax grant" since this tax would normally be due in full even in Towson. The grant is being repaid by the room occupancy tax over 30 years as estimated by the private consultant firm Sage Policy Group (Anirban Basu). The matter will be before the County Council under fiscal matters as a "development agreement between Towson Row Statutory Trust and Baltimore County" for a vote on December 18. A fiscal analysis is available as a "Fiscal Note" on the auditor's webpage (links see below). The Council webpage does not provide any information at this time. The meeting will be open to the public.

Towson Row celebration after demolition (Baltimore Fishbowl)

The new development partner Brian Gibbons told the SUN that Towson Row was "not economically feasible as designed" and that the $43 million up front assist from the County represents "the minimum threshold we needed with our partners".

The BBJ reported this week that developer Gibbons announced the begin of construction for mid 2018 with the Whole Foods store planned for the development all along, followed by 300 units for student housing. The article makes no mention of the tax deal.

That large scale developments are proposed and then don't happen for long time or not at all is not unique. The City of Baltimore has several sites that have been either vacant lots for decades (such as the prominent  McCormick site at the Inner Harbor which sat empty for 25 years until the current development finally came though) or as an assortment of vacant buildings (the Superblock) or as a prominent space in ruins (the site of the former Morris Mechanic Theater). In many of these cases there were big public announcements and then only silence and rumors until attention faded altogether. Even that subsurface conditions upend cost estimates and geotechnical borings done prior to design is not unheard of. But that a developer joins a project 4 years after its inception and then declares it "economically not feasible" six months later is unusual, especially if external circumstances didn't change and the economy is humming. It certainly furthers the notion that the public didn't get the full picture in the beginning. 

5 vacant acres in the heart of Towson 

While in the case of the Towson Gateway it was the the County who set up a scenario in which the imagined win-win was almost impossible, in the case of Towson Row it looks like the County is on the short end of the stick. Not wanting to look at 5 acres of emptiness, what are the  administration and the council members supposed to do? 

Maybe the debate of this public aid can include the discussion of the startling economic segregation this metro area experiences not only in the City, but also in the County.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
updated for information on the County "Fiscal Note" and link (below) to Development Agreement under consideration

County information release of 11/24/17
Development Agreement for consideration by County Council
Fiscal Note (addendum issued 12/11/17)