A Better Path Forward
How to Build Stronger Community!
Identify Our Challenges
For decades, growth in Baltimore County has been steered by developer special interests that favored suburban sprawl. Developers have chosen to build on green open spaces because it’s easier and yields greater profit — but the result has left us with:
Infrastructure we cannot support
Neglected communities
Eroding public trust
The consequence is an unsustainable tax base that requires constant development to fund essential services. Continuing sprawl will make this problem worse, growing our infrastructure liabilities and endangering the drinking water for 2 million people.
Evidence of this is everywhere
Numerous ailing commercial corridors
Crumbling infrastructure and dangerous roadways
District one has the largest area of failing roads in Baltimore County
A development process favoring sprawl development over incremental growth
Deficits in open space and recreational amenities
Sewer deficiencies and areas prone to flooding
High densities of poverty and persisting inequities
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Focus On Opportunities
District One’s greatest strength is its people — spanning every economic background, vibrant religious and ethnic communities, families who arrived as refugees, and neighbors whose roots run generations deep. What unites us is the shared desire for safe, thriving neighborhoods with opportunities for the next generation.
Alongside this strength, District One has meaningful opportunities:
MARC and light rail lines that that connect us to BWI, Baltimore, DC and Fort Meade
Major employers like UMBC, Kaiser Permanente and nearby FBI center, SSA, and CMS
Walkable Main Streets and Nationally Recognized Historic Districts
Waterfront access in Baltimore Highlands
Active community organizations with residents who understand redevelopment’s power
A Department of Planning filled with capable community builders
Passionate educators dedicated to our children
Brave first responders who put their lives on the line everyday
Dedicated public sector employees who are our unsung heroes
Processes and tools that, with a willing Councilperson, empower communities.
A robust non-profit community
The foundation of a vibrant heritage industry – the County's only Arts district, a rich multicultural community, UMBC's cultural amenities, a burgeoning brewery scene, and the scenic Patapsco Heritage Area
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Redevelopment’s Renaissance
Instead of endless suburban sprawl, we must focus on redeveloping commercial corridors — places like Ingleside and Edmondson Avenues, Route 40 and Route 1, and our local Main Streets in Baltimore Highlands, Westowne, Lansdowne, Catonsville, and Arbutus. Sustainable redevelopment improves quality of life, lifts community confidence, expands housing options, supports walkability, and protects our open spaces for future generations.
Equally important, redevelopment must connect existing neighborhoods to these renewed areas without relying on cars. Walkability and bikeability are key — giving residents safe, convenient ways to reach shops, jobs, schools, parks, and transit.
We must also promote housing options that reflect real community needs. That means creating opportunities for older residents to downsize without leaving their neighborhoods, ensuring younger residents can afford to return and raise families in the communities where they grew up and providing units where essential workers can live near their jobs.
And most importantly, we must use the new tax base to reinvest directly in our legacy neighborhoods — in education and public safety, slowing traffic, paving roads, improving shared spaces, and, in general, making everyday life safer and more accessible.
Smart Growth means building on what we’ve already invested in.
For years, we have invested in mass transit at our light rail and MARC train stations, but the full benefits were never realized because surrounding communities weren’t designed to connect to them. By promoting transit-oriented, walkable, and bikeable redevelopment, we can finally unlock that potential.
Smart Growth reflects the benefits of these investments back into the community by:
Creating lively, safe corridors where people want to live and shop.
Growing a stronger, sustainable tax base without raising tax rates.
Reinvesting in schools, public safety, aging streets, and infrastructure in legacy neighborhoods.
This is how we make past investments pay off — not just for developers, but for the residents who built and sustained these communities for generations
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Strengthening Institutional Connections
UMBC and CCBC are two of our district’s leading institutional anchors — hubs of innovation, culture, and opportunity. Strengthening ties between these institutions and surrounding neighborhoods is key to long-term vitality.
That means:
Sharing resources like the UMBC shuttle to better connect residents to jobs, classes, events, and other amenities in order to reduce car dependence.
Promoting walkable and bike-friendly connections to Arbutus and Catonsville.
Enforcing standards for students who live off campus.
Active, ongoing engagement with university leadership and the community, particularly around Spring Grove redevelopment, to ensure campus growth benefits everyone.
Lifting up cultural amenities— from the arts and athletics to lectures and performances — so residents can fully enjoy and engage with what the campuses have to offer.
By deepening cooperation, we can make UMBC and CCBC not just regional leaders in higher education, but also community partners that strengthen quality of life for everyone in District One.
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Placemaking
Creating vibrant recreational, cultural, and social opportunities strengthens the sense of place that makes our neighborhoods unique. The visual and performing arts, local and state parks, historic sites, breweries, restaurants, and places of worship all contribute to a community where people want to live, work, and play.
Placemaking isn’t just about activity — it’s about building connections and shared experiences. These spaces allow our diverse community to come together, learn from one another, and work toward a more harmonious future.
But, we must be vigilant in protecting our natural and historical resources. As our tax base grows through smart redevelopment, we must ensure that revenue is reinvested into the upkeep, preservation, and enhancement of parks, trails, and other community assets — safeguarding them for current and future generations.
We must also protect the historic character of our neighborhoods, including contributing structures in Historic Districts, to prevent development that tears down our history. Thoughtfully community-approved, historically sensitive pre-approved designs, such as for Accessory Dwellings, is an example of how incremental development can preserve neighborhood character by making tear-downs less financially attractive and give the community control over how we evolve.
Finally, we must ensure that local businesses enhance our quality of life. The best way to support them is to grow a strong customer base of neighbors who care deeply about their community and can walk or bike to support them, creating vibrant, mutually beneficial neighborhoods where residents and businesses thrive together.