A Baltimore County councilman is planning to introduce resolutions tonight that would earmark two stretches of land along Reisterstown Road for County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s signature program for the redevelopment of older neighborhoods.
Councilman Kevin Kamenetz's plan to designate two sites - each more than 5 acres - south of the Beltway for "renaissance opportunity" is the first since council members approved legislation last month that allows replacing the traditional development process with intensive community involvement for selected projects in specified neighborhoods.
Kamenetz, a Pikesville-Ruxton Democrat, said that although no one has approached him about using the new process in his district, he wants to bring attention to redevelopment work done in Pikesville and to encourage developers to look at other sites.
"All I'm trying to do is open some eyes," he said. "Sometimes being the first is an effort to highlight the area."
Smith's spokesman, Donald I. Mohler III, said Kamenetz's resolutions are good news.
"This is exactly the kind of cooperation we were anticipating when the council passed the landmark legislation several weeks ago," he said. "We are confident that developers and community members will be able to get together ... to design projects."
If the resolutions, scheduled for a Feb. 7 vote, pass, developers proposing projects on the west side of Reisterstown Road from Dreher Avenue to Colonial Road and on the east side from near Sherwood Avenue to Sudbrook Lane would be eligible to take part in the new process - which requires community consensus reached through a series of planning meetings, known as a "charrette."
Under the new legislation, certain projects in "renaissance opportunity areas" will be able to bypass the property's current zoning - each of the parcels in Kamenetz's resolution is designated for business use - but will move forward only if at least 80 percent of community participants in the charrette agree on the plan.
Each of the two Pikesville stretches has vacant or soon-to-be vacated buildings or land, although both also have restaurants and other businesses that are doing well, Kamenetz said. One includes the site for a proposed methadone clinic involved in a federal lawsuit over Baltimore County's zoning laws.
"So if this renaissance legislation was intended to create miracles, then let's see some renaissance there," said Kamenetz, who has said the legislation does not address issues that can hamper redevelopment, such as the cost of negotiating with multiple property owners to amass enough land for a project.
"I'm willing to have any additional tools that continue the revitalization," he said.
Some other council members have said they are eyeing land in their districts as possible sites for the new program.
Councilman John Olszewski Sr., a Dundalk Democrat, said last week that at least one developer has expressed interest in using the process in his district. While he has areas in mind - among them a corridor that includes the old, vacant Seagram's distillery - he said he still does not know how much land he wants to designate.
"I think the best way to do it is to get some community input," he said.
