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Lutherville Station: How promoting transit around Baltimore is easier said than done | STAFF COMMENTARY

So while we appreciate all of the preaching to the choir about Baltimore’s bright transit-enriched future at the recent event, we would suggest that the next GBC summit be held in central Baltimore County. It’s clear that matters of economic development, traffic congestion and climate change can sometimes take a back seat there to unfounded fears.


October 19, 2023


One by one local luminaries from the public and private sectors took the stage at the Baltimore Convention Center Monday afternoon to praise regional transit investment efforts. There was Gov. Wes Moore urging participants at the Greater Baltimore Committee’s first-ever summit on public transportation and economic development to “give it everything we got — no rest, all gas, no brakes.” And Mayor Brandon Scott, who sees resurrection of the Red Line, the proposed multibillion-dollar east-west transit link, as a potential remedy for “redlining” that long hampered prosperity in West Baltimore. Devloper P. David Bramble of MCB Real Estate, who faces the sizable challenge of “re-imagining” Harborplace, was just as bullish. “If we can make [the Inner Harbor] cool enough for Baltimoreans, tourists will want to come here, too,” Bramble promised the more than 400 people in attendance.


The prospects for improved transit in the area, attendees were told, included East Coast rail service through a revived Penn Station, all connected by a1.4-mile-long Frederick Douglass Tunnel serving both Amtrak and MARC trains, along with more walkable and bikeable city streets. There was surprisingly little time spent on the formidable obstacles ahead, however, and many, many questions left unanswered about funding, the shape projects will take and public safety. Here’s one that seems especially pressing, particularly for suburbanites: Will people welcome upgraded transit in the counties, or will it be shunned by the Not-In-My-Backyard crowd?


There is already strong opposition to the proposed Lutherville Station redevelopment in Baltimore County. On paper, it looks like exactly what the folks attending the half-day GBC summit want, and it could actually decrease traffic congestion by making light rail more viable. Yet the project continues to languish, with no greenlight to move forward as either “transit oriented development” or “planned unit development”; it hasn’t even been added to the county’s evolving master plan. Without needed zoning approval from the Baltimore County Council, developer Mark Renbaum’s MLR Partners can’t begin construction on the proposal’s planned 400-unit apartment building, along with offices and retail space next to the light rail stop on West Ridgely Road in Lutherville.


Some local residents have been vehement in their opposition, despite a developer-backed study that points to the project’s $325 million economic impact, with hundreds of jobs created and millions of dollars in added annual property tax revenue to support public schools. Much of the criticism from this predominantly white community has been focused on the apartment building — both its potential impact on already-overcrowded schools and on the possibility it will include subsidized housing — as well as the potential for city residents and crime to migrate to the county, raising issues of race and class and bias.


The county already has a well-documented history of housing discrimination against African Americans for which it is legally obligated to make amends. And we would ask those who insist race isn’t a factor in community opposition to explain why the county’s support for redevelopment at Security Square Mall, in the predominantly African American community of Woodlawn, hasn’t proven so controversial.


The irony in all this is that the developer could build apartments at his Yorkridge Shopping Center, which is adjacent to Lutherville Station, if he were so inclined without any rezoning required.


Third District Councilman Wade Kach, a Republican who represents the Lutherville area, says he’d like to negotiate a compromise and see some community approved redevelopment move forward at the largely abandoned site. Meanwhile, County Executive John A. “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr., a Democrat with aspirations for higher office, has said little publicly.


So while we appreciate all of the preaching to the choir about Baltimore’s bright transit-enriched future at the recent event, we would suggest that the next GBC summit be held in central Baltimore County. It’s clear that matters of economic development, traffic congestion and climate change can sometimes take a back seat there to unfounded fears.


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