A decade ago, the ambitious blueprints for Owings Mills New Town were unveiled, proclaiming a smaller, Baltimore County version of Columbia or Reston. It would be an "urban village," with as many as 5,000 homes of diverse price tags on 430 acres, the county's largest residential project.
Today, nearly 1,200 condominiums, apartments, townhomes and upscale detached dwellings have been built in villages along the tree-lined boulevards that serve as the main arteries. The 304-unit apartment complex in New Town has periodically needed a waiting list at a time when many rental properties in the Baltimore region are running vacancy rates of 5 percent to 10 percent.
This year will see another spurt of construction, as many as 270 more condos and townhomes in New Town.
The first dwellings in a new 55-unit townhome village -- Saplin Hill -- are being sold, and, by midyear, two more projects will begin once all the regulatory approvals are obtained -- around 65 townhomes and 150 condos.
A new, 125,000-square-foot shopping center -- one of the first in Baltimore County in years -- opened in the heart of New Town in November, anchored by a Giant supermarket. Construction of an elementary school is scheduled to begin next year.
Tucked between I-795, the Owings Mills Mall and the 1,900-acre Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area, New Town continues to evolve into the self-contained community unveiled on paper in 1986. By the time the last home has been built, perhaps in 2002, the community should have more than 10,000 residents.
The developer, Ahmanson Residential Development -- a California-based subsidiary of one of the country's largest lenders -- will likely not build the 5,000 units that have been authorized by the county.
Given the market demand, a target of 3,500 to 4,000 units is more realistic, according to Jim DeFrancia of Lowe Enterprises Inc., overseer of Ahmanson's real estate investments. But that still makes New Town the largest single residential community developed by Ahmanson, he said.
New Town fits into the 12-year-old Baltimore County development strategy that has designated the 13,000-acre Owings Mills corridor a growth area. Hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment -- schools, utilities and roads -- have been allocated to Owings Mills, transforming it into one of the fastest-growing sections of the Baltimore metropolitan area.
