Cherry Hill: A Development Oriented Master Plan

Photo from the New York Times

 In 2008 Baltimore released the long awaited Master Plan for the Cherry Hill Community. It addressed issues such as Youth Groups, Education, Senior Services, Shopping at the Town Center, Public Health, and Voter Turnout. One thing that isn't discussed in great detail is the pressing need to redevelop parts of the Neighborhood to help integrate it into the urban fabric of Baltimore. It's mentioned a little bit, just glossed over a little bit. It does mention crime a little bit but it doesn't talk about how Cherry Hill's distressed Public Housing and lack of Home Ownership are at the forefront of crime. Although every issue that I mentioned above is very important to the overall health of Cherry Hill, redevelopment in certain areas is crucial and I would like to take this time present a Master Plan of my own to address redevelopment and hopefully eradicate crime and poverty.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

Now there has been some great reinvestment in Cherry Hill that is right on par with how I would to proceed further with redevelopment plans. The Landex Company at the turn of the century took the original 320 World War II Barracks which were in a state of disrepair, demolished 68 of them and then took the remaining 252 apartments and made them into 126 three and four bedroom Town Homes. These Town Homes are great way to build personal equity and wealth because those who qualify can rent to own. The plan I will be putting forth is very big on converting qualified renters who are existing Cherry Hill Residents into home owners. 

Photo From Google Earth

The land on which the demolished Barracks once stood, new Town Homes with garages were built as market rate Home Ownership Units. The only issue I take with this development is that the home ownership and rentals are clearly differentiated which in a true mixed income Community the circumstances of the Residents are shown by the type of home they live in.

Photo From Google Earth

Now there is some confusion regarding Cherry Hill that I would like to clear up. Cherry Hill and Cherry Hill Homes are not the same thing. Cherry Hill Homes is a Public Housing Development that skirts the edge of the Neighborhood and is easy accessible to the Light Rail Station and as a result Patapsco Avenue. Much of the crime in Cherry Hill appears to be associated with Cherry Hill Homes. There are currently 1394 units of this sprawling development which is a mixture of Garden Apartments and Town Homes. I believe that Cherry Hill as a whole can make a turn around if a significant portion of Cherry Hill Homes were redeveloped.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

The rest of Cherry Hill is a mixture of Apartment Complexes (Cherrydale, The Communities of Middle Branch Manor) the revitalized Barracks (River Front Town Homes) and privately owned "classic" Baltimore Row Homes. This is the Cherry Hill that doesn't make head lines because it's relatively safe and isn't poverty stricken and in distressed condition like the Cherry Hill Homes development.  

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

Also in Cherry Hill there are a good number of amenities such as the Aquatic Center and Splash Park, South Baltimore Health Center, Harbor Hospital, The Gwynns Falls Trail, Light Rail Access, Middle Branch Park, a Town Center, Cherry Hill Park, Southern Community Action Center, Baltimore Rowing Club, Middle Branch Marina, as well as great views of Downtown. A community with amenities such as these should be a magnet for Young Professionals, and Families of all ages and income levels. The rents should mirror that of Inner Harbor East while the price of a Row Home should mirror that of Fells Point. Obviously this is not the case and I believe Cherry Hill Homes is the primary factor holding the Neighborhood back.

Photo From Google Earth

That being said, it's time to redevelop Cherry Hill Homes. Now the newer section located near Carver Road and Bridgeview Road (pictured above) will be spared and will remain a Public Housing Family Development. Now one thing that be done with caution and care is to provide public housing for Seniors who would be displaced by the redevelopment of Cherry Hill Homes.

These new Senior buildings will be located next to Harbor Hospital on what is now surface parking. This will have an effect on security around the Hospital because visitors and employees alike will now have to park in a garage that will be built on site. With the new Senior Development located here Residents will be closer to the Town Center as well as the Health Center.

The Senior Buildings will be amenity filled and will cater to Seniors with all different needs such as Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Nursing Residents. All Seniors in Cherry Hill Homes will be guaranteed a place in the new Senior Development and if there are any left over, Seniors on a Public Housing waiting list would fill the rest of the Apartments up. 

The section of Cherry Hill Home to be redeveloped will be on the outskirts of the Neighborhood located behind the Patapsco Avenue Light Rail Station. In the place of Cherry Hill Homes will be high density TOD Apartments, Condos, and Town Homes most of which will be Market Rate Home Ownership and Rentals (70%) They will expand from Seagull Avenue to Berea Road. This new TOD Community will integrate Cherry Hill with the Light Rail Stop with a lighted promenade from Seagull Avenue to Berea Road. The following road will be extended to meet Patapsco Avenue; Seagull Avebue, Bethune Road, Bridgeview Road, and Sethlow Road. This will allow Patapsco Avenue as well the Light Rail Station to be integrated into the fabric of Cherry Hill. 

Photo From Baltimore Housing.org

Also when redeveloping Cherry Hill Homes, great care must be taken not to displace Residents who are upwardly mobile. There are Residents who are gainfully employed and/or are in School. A good portion (30%) will be set aside for current Cherry Hill Homes Residents who meet the upwardly mobile criteria above which will allow them to "rent to own" their homes. These new homes will be similar in concept to the successful River Front Town Homes that were the original Barracks. This will increase Home Ownership in Cherry Hill and allow Residents to build equity in their homes. Unlike River Front Town Homes, the redeveloped Cherry Hill Homes will be only new construction.

On the opposite side of Cherry Hill sits what was once to be Waterview Overlook, this was supposed to be an upscale condo and Town Home Development. Land along Waterview Avenue had been cleared for development but the housing market went bust and so did the developers of Waterview Overlook. Since this land is zoned for exactly the number of units that the original Waterview Overlook was supposed to have, I would like to see this project resurrected. Also along Waterview Avenue there is great opportunity to integrate the road with the existing Cherry Hill Community. It would involve redeveloping part of the Middle Branch Manor Apartments. The redeveloped part of Middle Branch Manor would be similar to Waterview Overlook in appearance and will have Waterview Avenue frontage.

In the inner ring of Cherry Hill, there are some plats of land that are vacant. Those plats of land will be developed as Town Homes which are what's already in that part of the Neighborhood. Also the existing Neighborhood is very dark. Street lights are very rare and I think invites crime. The redeveloped part of the Neighborhood will obviously have more street lights but they also have to be added to the existing Neighborhood. I'm surprised that this issue wasn't addressed long ago. Streets will be repaved and sidewalks repaired and retrofitted.  

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

Now we come to the Schools. Cherry Hill has 4 Elementary Schools and 2 High Small High Schools. School Construction is something that Baltimore City is way behind on and I think that new Schools in Cherry Hill are crucial to its success. Combining the four Elementary Schools into two both in brand new buildings one at the current Arundel Elementary/Middle site and the other at the Patapsco Elementary/Middle. The two High Schools, New Era Academy and Southside Academy co-exist together in the former Arnett J. Brown Middle School Building. Since this building's use was that of a Middle School, the site outside is inadequate  for a High School let alone two. Things that are lacking include a running track, football field, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds. All that this School has is a blacktop. In order to keep this building's site adequate, all of those things will have to be added.

Photo From Cherry Hill Master Plan

In 2008 the City of Baltimore released a Master Plan for Cherry Hill. It barely brushed upon the subject of development and redevelopment. I think to achieve the results set forth in the original Plan a second Master Plan that was development oriented had to be created. Hopefully this plan that I have set forth will take off and Cherry Hill will be among Baltimore's most sought after addresses.   

Reisterstwon Station: A Promise Delivered 28 Years Later is just the Beginning

TOD in Baltimore as a whole has been something of a broken promise, then again how could TOD be warranted when Rail Transit hasn't taken off the way it has in other Cities. When Baltimore's Green Line was built there were sketches of Mixed Use TOD at Reisterstown Station at the City/County line. Finally 28 years later (the sketches were from 1984) the land surrounding Reisterstown Station and a few other stations along the Green Line are ready for development at long last. But can TOD be warranted when parts of the City and County are still in the midst of a Rail Transit Desert?

In the far Northwest corner of the City one can easily forget that they are still in the City. This due to the fact that this area was built at the same and in some after its suburban counterparts. That means that homes have expansive lawns, garages, and roads are wide to accommodate vehicular traffic as the mass production of the automobile had become the norm for American households.

Despite Baltimore's population loss, Planners wanted to build a massive Heavy Rail Transit System to serve the City and surrounding areas and had come up with a Master Plan by 1968. Funding difficulties and lack of cooperation kept construction of any kind on the back burner for more than a decade to come. 

By the time the late 1970s rolled around as was the case in most Metropolitan Areas, there had been a lot of population loss in the Cities but many suburb dwellers were still commuting back and forth to the City day in and day out. With streetcars long gone it was time to reintroduce Rail Transit into Baltimore's landscape to ease commutes. With other Cities losing population like Baltimore, Rail Transit has helped curb the population loss and have been responsible for population growth in the City proper. Could Rail Transit do this Baltimore?

Early renderings of a comprehensive Rail Transit show a north south line (Today's Light Rail or "Blue Line"),  an east west line (Future Red Line) and U shaped line that would run from Owings Mills to Martin State Airport (Today's Green Line) with the MARC Camden and Penn Lines acting as regional lines.

This got off to a very slow start with the Green Line opening in 1983 from Reisterstown Station to Charles Center. Planners had still envisioned a much larger and comprehensive Rail Plan as shown in the Charles Center stop which includes a stop for a future line built into it.

In 1987 an extension from Reisterstown Station to Owings Mills opened.

In 1994 the extension from Charles Center to Johns Hopkins Hospital opened.

Rail Transit in Baltimore has been under intense criticism for its entire existence, it has been to blame for "bringing the criminal element from the City into the County." Personally I think that claim is false and if Rail Transit has been successful in almost every other large City in the world then it should also work in Baltimore as well. So this begs the question; What's wrong?

What's wrong is that the existing Rails Line weren't built near anything. They're very out of the way, usually a Transit Line is in the middle of it all to catch high ridership. In a lot of cases TOD shouldn't even have to be built because the ridership is already so high and the area that it serves is built. This provides a sharp contrast to Baltimore's Light Rail and Metro Subway whose only populated stops are Lexington Market and State Center.

So what's the solution? More lines and more development. Rail Transit is one of those weird anomalies where adding more of the "problem" is the solution. The problem with Baltimore is that new lines will have to be re thought and not built along the outskirts of Downtown and the Harbor and into the very epicenter of Baltimore's population. This means rerouting the Red Line Downtown and points east for starters.

But what about lines that are already in assistance? Well that's where TOD comes in. They had it right 28 years ago when they showed a drawing of a fully developed Reisterstown Station and why they strayed away from that method of thinking is beyond me. TOD makes an otherwise under utilized Transit Stop and puts enough housing, retail, there that it becomes a destination in and of itself. Its density is so high that you HAVE to take the Transit Line serving the Neighborhood because using your car is just plain futile.

So what now? Well, developers should continue pursuing vacant sites around existing Stations and building high density mixed use TOD. Reisterstown Station should just be the beginning and wouldn't know it? It's beginning to catch on. Just south of the Reisterstown Station is the Rogers Avenue Station where 400 Market Rate Apartments will be built on surface level parking lots.

After that there are endless possibilities such as Coldspring, Mondawmin, and Penn North along the Green Line on the Light Rail there's Cherry Hill, Patapsco Avenue, and Mount Washington. This will put pressure on the MTA to build a comprehensive Rail Transit Plan including the Yellow Line from BWI to Towson, The Green Line from Hopkins to Martin State Airport via Harford and Belair Roads and the localization of the MARC Lines which will make for the Orange and Purple Lines. Believe me when I say that delivering the promise of TOD at Reisterstown Station 28 years later is just the beginning.

The Jones Falls: Front and Center

Please note; this post will waste the Tax Payer's money more than the ICC and makes no logical sense. That being said, I'm writing it anyway because of my love for the Jones Falls Valley and Hampden Woodberry. So enjoy the craziness.

Senator Barb saved Baltimore from two huge freeway projects that would have ruined it. First came the I-83 extension into Fells Point and Canton. I-83 would have roughly run along Boston St in Canton. Would Canton have made the comeback it did if there were an elevated freeway obstructing views of the Harbor? I think not! Same goes for Fells Point. Would Baltimoreans and Baltimorons alike be able to enjoy the new Gwynns Falls trail with I-70 and all its pollution running parallel to it? I think not! Did West Baltimore survive the Road to Nowhere? Absolutely not. 

With the exception of the Road to Nowhere, Baltimore's highways haven't been all that intrusive. I-695 was built at the same time as the suburbs which made for a situation that both developers and highway planners had enough land to pursue their respective projects. I-95 was going to intrude on Otterbein and Federal Hill but planners rerouted so that those Neighborhoods wouldn't be torn down unfortunately Otterbein was vacated in preparation for the new freeway which resulted in Dollar Row House Homesteading program. I-83 respected Ruxton by joining I-695 rather than running contiguously from the JFX to the Harrisburg expressway. I-83 for the most part respected the beauty of the Jones Falls Valley except for one part; The Hampden Woodberry area. That is what this post will be about. Hampden and Woodberry used to be just one Neighborhood, the Fallsway helped break the Neighborhood in two while the JFX was the final nail in the coffin for the once unified Hampden Woodberry.  

When I look at Hampden I see an emerging Neighborhood that was once a Mill Village but has since become a magnet for young professionals looking to embrace the culture that is Baltimore. 36th St. or "The Avenue" has become the year round showcase for Hampden and just two blocks away on 34th St., the whole street comes to life at Christmas Time. Hampden's once desolate commercial district has become vibrant with independent Businesses and Row Homes that were once boarded up have become occupied once again.    

When I look at Woodberry I see a Neighborhood that was devastated by the closure of the Mills that employed the majority of its Residents as well as those of Hampden. These mills include but aren't limited to Meadow Mill, Union Mill, Clipper Mill, Poole & Hunt, and Mount Vernon Mill. Currently there are plans to bring these diamonds in the rough back to life with mixed use developments some of which have been completed while others are in the planning and construction phases. 

Today I-83 is a dividing line between Hampden and Woodberry with each Neighborhood on either side of it. When I look at the JFX between Hampden and Woodberry I see what could have happened to other parts of Baltimore had Senator Barb not intervened and put a stop to the Highway Construction. Hampden and Woodberry's Mills were built in their locations because of the Jones Falls and its quick access to the Inner Harbor. This very important water way is the very reason for Baltimore's existence. 

I think it's high time that Hampden and Woodberry be reconnected by tunneling the JFX between 29th St. and Cold Spring Lane. This will unify both Neighborhoods and will allow for new development to occur around the Woodberry Light Rail which will be renamed Hampden Woodberry. As it stands right now both Hampden, Woodberry, and Medfield don't have enough long term housing stock as is to fulfill future growth. I think new development where I-83 now obstructs it is the way to go. In fact the Avenue can be extended all the way to Woodberry so the Light Rail Station and the Mill development won't compete with the Avenue as they will now be one and the same.

Speaking of the Avenue, a new one can now be created via Clipper Road. In Medifield Roland Heights Avenue. can be extended to meet it while Clipper Road can be given lighted sidewalks that will run all the way to an extended 36th St. Clipper Road will then end at Clipper Mill Road east of where the current expressway is. The Jones Falls will be front and center and the entire Hampden, Woodberry, and Medfield Neighborhoods will be waterfront destinations with the removal of the above ground freeway. The JFX tunnel can also better connect Hampden to Druid Hill Park, another casualty of the building of the Falls Way and now the JFX.

One Mill that hasn't received any attention as of yet is the real Clipper Mill. The new development in Woodberry named Clipper Mill was actually that of Poole & Hunt a large cotton & textile mill while the real Clipper Mill is located deep in the depths of Hampden on Clipper Mill Road between Union Avenue and Falls Road. It's actually the only major Mill in the area that hasn't seen plans to restore it to its former glory. I suspect with its new founded front and center views of the Jones Falls the real Clipper Mill will see as much investment that its impostor has. 

Now I don't condone taking a stretch of the JFX and burying it underground, that would be foolish so as a result the entire content of this post is null and void BUT I don't like how the JFX tears through Hampden and Woodberry and that route never should have been approved. Given its constraints (The JFX) both Hampden and Woodberry are doing great despite the hulking elevated freeway in between the two. I personally would like to see Hampden and Woodberry bridged together and the Jones Falls front and center by TOD at the Light Rail Station but I don't see that happening with the JFX in the way.

30 Years Later Should MLK Boulevard Have Ever Been Built?

In 1982 Downtown Baltimore and West Baltimore were very different places. Downtown was still in shambles unless you were at the Harbor or Charles Center and not a block further from those places. The Westside of Downtown was feeling the effects of suburbanization while West Baltimore was entrenched in a decades long drug war centered in Lexington Terrace and Murphy Homes. This was the urban climate in which Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (MLK) was built. It served and still does serve as a bypass to Downtown and was supposed to be a quick route to get to midtown. MLK ends at Chase St. right in between Bolton Hill and Mount Vernon at the State Center. If MLK Boulevard was supposed to act as a thoroughfare like it was supposed to it would have had an interchange with I-83, I'm thinking like a mid to late 20th century highway planner in order to reenact the climate of 1982 where it was still a "good idea" to destroy City Neighborhoods in order to build highways. MLK Boulevard has since become just another north south route through Downtown with the same amount of gridlock as the very streets it was supposed to bypass begging the question; Should MLK Boulevard  Have Ever Been Built?

West Baltimore and the western edge of Downtown was something to be bypassed in 1982 and in the planning and construction years leading up to it as well. Stately Neighborhoods such as Ridgley's Delight and Barre Circle had not yet gentrified and Pigtown was in worse shape than it is now. The Stadiums (M&T Bank and Camden Yards) were a good 10-20 years away from materializing and Lexington Terrace and Murphy Homes were war zones. So long story short, the MLK Boulevard corridor was in shambles. The only real draws were State Center and the massive Social Security Building. These were nothing but Office Buildings without any Retail or Residences nearby and the workers in those buildings lived in the suburbs or on the outskirts of the City. Given the state of the Neighborhoods surrounding State Center and the Social Security Building workers didn't exactly want to stick around the City after hours.

So this begs the question; What is a bypass? Well as its name suggests it bypasses a certain area that's congested and provides a shorter unclogged route. So does MLK Boulevard bypass Downtown? Yes it does but it doesn't do it in a manner that's much faster than say Howard St., Calvert St., or Charles St. so in that aspect at least given today's landscape of the road and its surrounding areas, it fails as a bypass. Also I can't help but wonder if earlier in the planning stages if MLK was supposed to be more limited access. Sure, there are the bridges at the road to nowhere but those still have traffic lights on MLK. Could MLK Boulevard have originally been a freeway with grade separated interchanges? I haven't seen evidence of it but I given the sad state of West Baltimore and the Government's willingness to plow through distressed Neighborhoods in the name of Highway Construction, I wouldn't have been surprised if that had been discussed.

Another way to more effectively make MLK Boulevard more of a limited access freeway to merely cut off access to east west roads like they have done with Lexington St. Granted there's still a traffic light there due to heavy pedestrian activity but having other streets stop and start on either side of the Boulevard would have made for faster travel times and allowed it to have nothing to do with the Neighborhoods it's bypassing. With that being said, MLK Boulevard was quite successful in bypassing Downtown in its early years because the route it took was relatively deserted. 

Then around the late 1980s, Neighborhoods along MLK Bouleard began to experience one by one. First came Reidgley's Delight which went through a similar homesteading experience that Otterbein did just under a decade earlier. Now Ridgley's Delight is an ultra sought after address. 

Next came Oriole Park at Camden Yards Its April 1992 opening date set a new standard for Baseball Stadiums across the Country      and it increased traffic on MLK Boulevard and all of Downtown during home games so much so that Lee St. got its own exit from MLK Boulevard while it's still considered part of I-395. 

In 1996 the first of two pubic housing high rise developments were demolished; Lexington Terrace which directly abuts MLK Boulevard. This scary development was over run by drug dealers, violent crime, and deplorable living conditions. This and the adjacent Murphy Homes may have been to blame for the bad reputation of the Boulevard. In 2000 "The Townes at the Terraces" was completed on the site of Lexington Terrace. This new mixed income Community contains mostly Town Homes 1/3 of which are market rate home ownership while the rest are public housing. In addition there's an 88 unit Apartment Building for Seniors. Upon completion of the Terraces, crime has gone down and the quality of life has gone up.

In 1998 following the footsteps of Camden Yards M&T Bank Stadium opened across MLK Boulevard from Camden Yards on land originally cleared for the first stadium. This, like Camden Yards set the new standard for building of future stadiums. It most certainly increased traffic on MLK Boulevard especially during game days. 

In 1999 Murphy Homes was demolished, located just across the road to nowhere from Lexington Terrace Murphy Homes had also fallen victim to the crime, blight, and drugs that so much of Baltimore had and continues to from the latter half of the 20th century until this day. In 2003 Heritage Crossing was completed. As Murphy Home's successor there's no comparison. Unlike the Terraces the majority of the new Town Homes are market rate home ownership and a minority are public housing units. Heritage Crossing also boasts more green space and a much more suburban appearance. Like the Terraces the successor is worlds better than its predecessor. 

Very quietly University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMB) has been expanding its campus from to engulf everything from MLK Boulevard to the west, Greene St to the east, Fayette St. to the north and Pratt St to the south. Recent additions include 

The Institute of Virology Opened in 1996 

A new Library that opened in 1998

A Museum of Nursing that opened in 1999

New School of Law Building opened in 2002

New School of Dentistry opened in 2006

Institute of Genome Science opened in 2007

New Southern Quad opened in 2009

New Ambulatory Medical Center slated for 2012

All of these expansions in both program and space has made for larger enrollment at UMB and still more traffic on MLK Boulevard. As new buildings open it gives the University the opportunity to renovate, expand, and modernize older existing buildings. In addition to the School itself generating more traffic the adjacent Neighborhoods have become magnets for Students of UMB. MLK Boulevard has become filled with Students who live in Ridgley's Delight, Pigtown, Hollins Market, and Barre Circle and walk to School. 

Speaking of UMB and crossing MLK Boulevard, UMB has been constructing a new Biotech Park since roughly 2005. It's going along West Baltimore St. in Poppleton on the grounds of dilapidated row homes. The new heavily guarded park is slated to bring new jobs to the area and will boost redevelopment efforts throughout Poppleton. 

There are future plans along MLK Boulevard; State Center. The very suburban park is slated to be redeveloped and bridge the gap between Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Upton, Seton Hill, and Heritage Crossing. This project has had numerous pit falls and controversies. First off, there are those who think the State shouldn't be investing that kind of money during a recession, the State's developers Streuver Brothers, Eccles, and Rouse going bankrupt, the design having to be modified because McCulloh Homes are no included, and a host of other hurdles that have halted construction that should have been underway many times over.

There were also plans at one point to extend MLK Boulevard to meet I-83. This would be disastrous to all of the Neighborhoods nearby as it would destroy their fabric and some very beautiful row homes might be destroyed in the process. It's also interesting that this wasn't done 30 years ago. MLK Boulevard just stops at Chase St. where had it continued would have cut through Mount Vernon and Bolton Hill. These Neighborhoods 30 years ago were in decent shape while the rest of the Neighborhoods surrounding the Boulevard were not. That gives me insight into the state of mind that the planners were in that they only wanted to disrupt poor distressed Neighborhoods while leaving wealthy Neighborhoods alone. That was just a little side note I found quite interesting.

Now that I have given a history of MLK Boulevard from 1982-2012 and beyond it comes time to answer the burning the question; Should MLK Boulevard Ever Been Built? My answer; Yes, it started out as a bypass from Downtown heading Uptown with very few traffic jams. Now that the area has gone through and will continue to go through a massive transformation it has stopped being a bypass because it takes almost as long to get Uptown than if you drove straight through Downtown. So if it failed as a bypass why should it have been built? Well I will answer that with a question; How could all of these new Stadiums, gentrified Neighborhoods, and expanded University without this new road to support the additional traffic?