Legal contract for Remington shopping center sought
By Larry Perl
lperl@patuxent.com
Posted 8/10/10
Determined to make the developers of a proposed shopping center deliver what they promise, a coalition of residents and business owners has amassed about 1,000 signatures on a petition asking Baltimore City to require a legal contract before approving the $65 million project. Bmore Local, a group that advocates “smart development, good jobs and healthy neighborhoods” — and said the shopping center would be too massive for the area — is calling for a “Community Benefit Agreement” with the developers, said Genny Dill, a co-founder of Bmore Local and past president of the Hampden Community Council.
A development team headed by Rick Walker. of WV Urban Development, has proposed building the center, 25th Street Station, on 11.5 acres at Howard and West 25th streets in Remington.
The center would be co-anchored by a Walmart and a Lowe’s. The current owner of the site, Anderson Automotive, is moving its Honda dealership to Hunt Valley in 2011.
The Baltimore City Planning Commission voted unanimously Aug. 5 to recommend the City Council approve a zoning amendment that would keep the development plan alive, at least for design and traffic review by the city.
The site is zoned as a Planned Unit Develoment and the council must amend the PUD. The council has not set a hearing date.
Bmore Local wants the developers to sign a binding legal contract that would require them to hire mostly local retail and construction workers and pay them “living” wages, among other demands by the group.
The group held a rally outside City Hall before the Planning Commission hearing and introduced Baltimore CAN, an even larger coalition.
Walker has told residents at community meetings that he would hire mostly residents in the area, but many area residents and merchants have long complained that there is nothing in the PUD itself that requires Walker to keep such promises.
Dill told the Messenger she wants “a signed contract between the stakeholders and the developer,” as other cities have required for developments. The contract should include penalties for non-compliance, Dill said.
A Memorandum of Understanding isn’t sufficient because “the MOU is nothing. There’s no teeth to it,” she said.
Commissioners said it wasn’t their place to recommend the contract or to weigh in on issues such as paying a living wage or hiring locally. But commissioners seemed to sympathize with people who testified and encouraged them to lobby the City Council.
About 150 people crowded into the commission’s small boardroom downtown for the four-hour hearing that focused mostly on concerns about the center’s potential impact on traffic and residential neighborhoods.
Residents of Historic Fawcett, also known as lower Remington, complained bitterly that plans for the shopping center call for placing truck delivery zones and garbage sites across from their community, meaning Fawcett would be at “the butt end” of the project.
Leaders of the Charles Village Civic Association, Old Goucher Community Association and Greater Remington Improvement Association signed a joint statement backing the PUD amendment, but raising concerns about the effect on area traffic.
They signed a joint letter to the Planning Commission supporting the PUD amendment if the development team agrees to streetscaping, traffic calming devices and specific traffic mitigations. One is a dedicated left-hand turn on northbound Howard at North Avenue to divert commuter traffic from Interstate 83 away from the site and affected neighborhoods.
The developers have agreed to pay $250,000 for traffic calming devices, optimization of traffic signals and steps to encourage pedestrian and bicycle access.
Another Remington group, the Remington Neighborhood Alliance did not join the task force, maintaining its independence, but told the Planning Commission of its fears that the developers would use residential streets as well as major arteries.
“It seems like they want to have all available access streets,” Alliance president Joan Floyd told the Messenger after testifying that 26th Street and Huntingdon Avenue and 24th Street and Hampden Avenue should be closed to traffic.
Floyd and other community leaders also contend that a traffic impact study, paid for by developers and done for the city Department of Transportation, is flawed, because it contains inaccurate information such as how many lanes certain streets have.
Floyd’s group took the unusual step this week of writing a formal letter last week to the Department of Transportation appealing the results of the traffic study, in effect questioning the study’s validity.
“We need to get this right,” Floyd told the planning board.
Commissioners praised the project overall and complimented the development team for working with neighborhood groups.
They also complimented residents for working hard to raise concerns and trying to hold developers’ feet to the fire.
But commissioners said the project has a long way to go before it is fully approved — and said they think eventually most of the residents’ concerns will be addressed.
“I know you’re not going to let this go through without getting it fixed,” said Hector Torres, a commissioner who is running for state delegate in the 43rd District.
Torres said it would greatly help the city to have big box stores so that shoppers wouldn’t have to go toBaltimore County, and so people without jobs would have more options closer to home.
Despite sharing residents’ concerns about traffic and other issues, “I don’t think in good conscience I can go against this project,” Torres said. “It’s too important.”
Time is running out for community input on the 25th Street Station Walmart/Lowes 11 acre complex!
Bmore Local Happy Hour
