Community Architect Baltimore: Ellicott City - destroyed by floods and now by demolition?

Founded only 43 years after Baltimore in 1772 and four years before the United States were born, Ellicott City with the oldest train station in the nation has survived 246 years of milling, commerce, floods, and fires. In the fall of 2018 Howard County Executive Alan Kittleman stands for re-election. On August 23 he stood on Ellicott City's historic Main Street and said in an almost Lutheran pose ("Here I stand, I can do no other") he wished he didn't have to be there. What he announced would change the town more profoundly that almost anything in its history before, catastrophes included: A plan to wipe out the entire eastern half of Main Street from the stately Caplan department store building all the way to the historic train station of 1830.

Two house wide 1926 Caplan Department Store long
turned antique store, destroyed in 2016 and in 2018, last used
as a fitness center for women.

This was an unusual announcement in many ways. When did a politician running for election ever announce such a bold and move that was bound to create a fierce backlash? When in the face of calamity had a politician not resorted to the usual "we (fill in the name of a place) do not give up, we are resilient, we stand together and we will rebuild better than ever before". Indeed, Kittleman had used those terms after the flood of 2016. But when an even bigger flood hit only two years later, Kittleman was no longer setting on doubling down and re-building. This time, he sets on drastic measures.

“I wish we weren’t here, but this a change that we need. In 2016, we were told that the flood that struck our town had a one-in-a-thousand chance of occurring, then not even two years later it happened again and it was even worse. ... Our need to adapt to this likelihood and our need to first and foremost protect life safety has changed the conversation.” Kittleman

Couch strategists had long suggested to give in to nature which time and again had sought the small town out for devastating floods. A1868 flood washed away 14 houses, killing at least 39 people. Since then no less than 13 other floods, mostly coming from the Patapso River up and not from the hills down, have caused havoc at regular intervals. Even since the 2018 flood in May of this year, Ellicott City had been once more evacuated when the channels filled to the edge in yet another deluge, before the water receded again just in time before the spill would have once again run through the street. So here was finally a courageous leader, to face the truth. He has a big plan and apparently big money, too. What is not to like about it? It turns out plenty. Well, sometimes the medicine is worse than the disease.

Slated for demolition all the way back to the Caplan Store sign

Foremost, taking down 10 buildings (8049 to 8125 Main St. including Phoenix Emporium, Portalli's, the Bean Hollow coffee shop and former Caplan's building) on the last few hundred feet of a fairly large watershed entailing several square miles is not really medicine at all. Removing those buildings does not reduce the flood, it only removes the damage that those floods cause on the those buildings.

It is as if one would remove the sidewalks downstream from a popular watering hole so that the drunk drivers can't mow down any pedestrians. It is blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator.

Neither floods coming from below nor from above are made any worse by the presence of these buildings. What destroyed them was the water rushing down the middle of Main Street because narrow culverts half a mile upstream didn't have anywhere near the necessary capacity to keep the water in the stream channels of the Hudson and the Tiger. True, Kittleman's suggested plan includes widening those "pinch-points" and also two shortcut culverts to be drilled underground that would direct water on a direct route into the Patapsco. The logic seems to be, that once the upstream pinch-points have been removed, water wouldn't fit in the channel behind those 10 buildings because some span over it. While this may be true, other buildings upstream cover the Tiber as well and are not proposed for demolition. Some buildinsg proposed for demo don't even span over the Tiber. In some cases its only a rear addition that would have to be be removed to open up the channel. It isn't clear how the demolition of those buildings would prevent overflow water to once again run in the street and damage buildings, possibly in a hereto unknown manner.

Boarded and weakened: Businesses wrecked by the flood and now
part of the demolition proposal. Buildings of a styles and vintages

Hdraulic and stormwater experts hold that stormwater management is most effective in the head-water area and least effective at the bottom of a stream. "End of pipe solutions" are heroic because they deal with water where it is the most visible and the most destructive, but as in the example of the bar making drivers drunk, the solution resides at the source.

Kittleman knows, of course that dealing with 10 buildings is easier than with hundreds. Besides, even development moratoria and stormwater retrofits for all development in the watershed would still not be enough to end catastrophic flooding from 6" per hour rain events, because those rains exceed anything found in any stormwater management manual. In other words, even the hundreds smaller upstream interventions would need to be complemented by heroic engineering efforts to retain large amounts of water so they can't reach the Main Street area. Gigantic holding basins fall into that category, possibly at the large surface lots on the western end of Main Street. They could be dug up for holding tanks large enough to make a significant difference. Ideally, additional retention ponds would have to be created in the higher elevations above Ellicott City.

this is the most recent new construction, also part of the demolition proposal

All this has been studied in great detail and it has been vetted for years by stakeholders in the Ellicott City flood working group.

It isn't entirely clear, how Kittleman came up with his large scale demo plan, even those who have been involved in past strategy sessions seem to be surprised. This is another legitimate objection against the drastic plan: The 2018 repeat flood did not create really any new facts, so why isn't the suggested solution logically derived from the long phase of deliberations that resulted from a process including the voices that need to be heard? The demolition strategy is not only costly ($50 million), it surprises some business owners who were set to rebuild and reopen and have already invested in their buildings now slated to come down. One creative startegy are concrete flood walls inside the historic looking rebuilt storefront.

An argument of another kind is historic preservation. Preservation Maryland has been involved in the debate about the future of the quaint historic mill town for years. In 2016, when the first large flood rushing down Main Street in many years, undercut an especially old building in the curve of Main Street to the extent that Kittleman was ready to order emergency demolition to ensure the safety of rescue workers, Preservation Maryland had sent engineers who devised a plan to save the building. The non-profit devoted to the history of Maryland even opened a branch office in Ellicott City to oversee the reconstruction after 2016 and issued a report in 2017about their response, their assistance and lessons to be learned.

Strips of freshly poured sidewalk concrete in front of structures now slated
for demolition

The tired theme that preservationists are hopelessly mired in the past and are unable or unwilling to accept the dynamic new challenges of the 21st century has often been repeated. As preservationists, we know this to be utter fallacy, but our experience in Ellicott City was an opportunity for us to show our friends and detractors alike that the work of our movement is squarely focused on the future and the health of communities. Preservation may be our tool, but community vibrancy is always our goal. (Preservation MD, Ellicott City Report 2017)

This time around, they were not even consulted before the demolition edict was announced. Accordingly, Executive Director Nicholas Redding's response was swift:

Demolition of historic buildings, is not [...] a proven strategy nor has it been adequately studied in Ellicott City to understand its hydrological impact. Furthermore, this plan, developed without substantive public input, could result in the de-listing of Ellicott City from the National Register of Historic Places which would curtail certain incentives and tax credits available for the historic community.
Perhaps most concerning is that this $50 million demolition plan does not appear to substantively mitigate or resolve flood risks. At the same time, by removing large portions of the built environment, new flood patterns could arise and potentially cause extensive damage to the National Historic Landmark B&O Railroad station which would sit in an even more vulnerable location.

Especially the granite structures are typical for historic Ellicott City

Clearly, the discussion cannot split along the lines of leaving everything as it is and a radical solution on the other side. Change and major investment is undoubtedly needed to protect lives, properties and history. But it must be allowed to ask what the most effective strategy is and whether it is necessary to subject the quaint town to more destruction in order to save the town.

After all, the town's Main Street is the source of its identity, especially in the lower segment. The buildings to come down are not just some random buildings, which have long established the characteristics of this town. What sits across the street would no longer work without the brethren on the other side which give balance and define the space which gently, faithfully and also fatefully, follows the contours of the Tiber valley.

Enlarged culverts, upstream retention basins, active defenses such as temporary flood-barriers and parking prohibition when flood warnings have been issued would go a long way to make the next big storm much less frightening.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Update: Preservation Maryland released a special report on Ellicott City on Wednesday 8/29/2018. It can be found here. It outlines four secnarios which all include preservation of at least the shells of the building proposed for demolition by the County.

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