Community Development

The split-level house on Stone Chapel Road hardly exudes luxuriousness.The brick-faced home is a modest one, featuring four bedrooms,2 1/2 baths, a two-car garage and a wood deck on about two acres.But for three men who live there, the house might as well be a palace.Tommy French, John George and Kenneth Wolf -- who are mentally retarded -- formerly lived in an institution.Now, through a state program that provides housing for retarded adults, the men residein a traditional home in the community.

The Inn at the Black Olive, a 12-suite boutique hotel in Fells Point known for eco-friendly amenities, will be offered for sale at a foreclosure auction Thursday. An auction by Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc. is slated for 9 a.m. at the South Caroline Street site of the two-year-old inn, which touts features such as organic bedding and towels, harbor-view balconies and spa bathrooms with aqua-therapy tubs. The inn is owned by the Spiliadis family, which operates the Black Olive Restaurant on Bond Street, also in Fells Point.

A nonprofit housing development corporation begins construction today on an apartment complex for seniors in Glen Burnie -- where, its spokeswoman says, market studies show a large elderly population and a "tremendous need" for such a facility."

A proposed zoning rule that would reduce the number of liquor outlets in Baltimore is garnering increased support among community members who believe it will make neighborhoods healthier and safer. The zoning change, part of the city's first zoning overhaul in 40 years, would force some retailers in residential areas to either alter what they sell or close their doors. That has prompted vocal opposition to the rule from the business owners, who say it's not fair and possibly illegal.

The City Arts Apartments are full of artists who live and work in the Baltimore complex, built on what long had been a vacant lot in a very vacant neighborhood. But a sudden gap in its development financing almost kept the project from getting off the ground. The $2.5 million hole was dug by the financial crisis, which pummeled the value of tax credits that many affordable-housing projects rely on. The post-crisis landscape for community development is shaping up to be even more challenging.

The Harford Road Partnership, known as HARP, has appointed a new executive director, Brent Flickinger, who started the full-time post last week.Flickinger, 47, previously worked as a Baltimore County community planner, concentrating on the Northeast section. He also has worked as director of research and planning for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and as a community organizer in the Park Heights section of Northwest Baltimore.He succeeds Marian Gillis as HARP's executive director, responsible for overseeing community and economic development in the stretch of Harford Road that begins at Argonne Drive and continues north for a mile and a half through Lauraville and Beverly Hills in Northeast Baltimore.

How Mary Williams, 29, a single mother of three with no credit rating, found a home of her own is a key part of the Clinton administration's proposed solution to the nation's urban crisis.With an income of $19,600 as an office cleaner, she was able to buy her $38,000 three-bedroom row house in Southwest Baltimore through a lending institution willing to take a credit risk no commercial bank would ordinarily consider.Through the same system, Wilbert and Betty McManus, in their 50s, bought their own first home -- a $42,000 three-bedroom shingled cottage with a pleasant yard -- last year after a lifetime of renting low-income housing.

WHEN ARNOLD Williams last week became the first African-American to chair the Baltimore Development Corp., his well-wishers at City Hall included some unusual investors - four leading pastors. They were there as the vanguard of divine capitalism, an emerging phenomenon that holds great promise for the city but may also lead to complicated political and tax problems. One of Mr. Williams' great challenges will be to balance the two - to harness the religious community's tremendous resources for the overall betterment of the city, but avoid the pitfalls that often come from mixing God with Mammon.

Charles C. Graves III, Baltimore's planning director, is leaving his $117,000 post after nine years to become Atlanta's commissioner of planning and neighborhood development, he announced yesterday. Graves told his 50-member staff the news Monday. Yesterday he expressed mixed emotions about moving from a city of 651,154 defined by its scores of neighborhoods. "Baltimore's a great city, but this is a unique opportunity because I'll be overseeing planning, community development and economic development," Graves said.

When Baltimore officials have talked about the city's "anchor institutions" - universities, hospitals, churches and other nonprofits - it has occasionally been unclear what sense of the word "anchor" they have sought to convey. When talk turns to what these tax-exempt entities contribute to keeping the city alive, the word has sometimes carried less an aura of stability and more a sense of great weight dragging things down. With today's announcement that it will invest $10 million over five years in its effort to organize the neighborhoods around the Homewood Campus around common development goals, the Johns Hopkins University is going a long way toward changing that.

When Baltimore officials have talked about the city's "anchor institutions" - universities, hospitals, churches and other nonprofits - it has occasionally been unclear what sense of the word "anchor" they have sought to convey. When talk turns to what these tax-exempt entities contribute to keeping the city alive, the word has sometimes carried less an aura of stability and more a sense of great weight dragging things down. With today's announcement that it will invest $10 million over five years in its effort to organize the neighborhoods around the Homewood Campus around common development goals, the Johns Hopkins University is going a long way toward changing that.

The City of Westminster's Facade Improvement Program this week received a state grant of $50,000 as part of Maryland's Community Legacy program awards. The award was part of an overall package of $5.5 million awarded to projects across the state, and was announced by Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown on Nov. 27 at an event in Baltimore. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development manages the program. The goal of the Community Legacy initiative is to provide local governments and community development organizations with funding for projects aimed at retaining and attracting businesses and encouraging homeownership and commercial revitalization.

The City of Havre de Grace has been announced as a 2012 Maryland Community Legacy Program grant recipient. Havre de Grace was awarded the full requested amount of Community Legacy grant funding for two programs benefiting its downtown revitalization effort, Meghan Simmons, Havre de Grace's economic development manager, said. The Façade Improvement Program will receive $25,000 and the Interior Fit-Out Program for Main Street building owners and tenants will receive $35,000, according to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers the program.

At the recent Governor's Housing Conference in Baltimore, the blue logo of a house with rays of light emanating from behind the roof was ubiquitous. It's the emblem of one of the conference's main sponsors, Enterprise, and to the roughly 800 people in attendance Oct. 16, it was nearly as recognizable as the red-and-yellow square of Wells Fargo, another sponsor. "They're not just a distant organization. … They bring home their national knowledge to us, and we impart what we're seeing," said Trudy McFall, president of the Maryland Affordable Housing Coalition, who moderated a panel about rental housing financing at the conference.

The City Arts Apartments are full of artists who live and work in the Baltimore complex, built on what long had been a vacant lot in a very vacant neighborhood. But a sudden gap in its development financing almost kept the project from getting off the ground. The $2.5 million hole was dug by the financial crisis, which pummeled the value of tax credits that many affordable-housing projects rely on. The post-crisis landscape for community development is shaping up to be even more challenging.

All three Harford County municipalities will be recipients of state Community Legacy Program grants announced by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Wednesday. Havre de Grace will get a $100,000 grant to make landscaping, signage and other beautification improvements at the entrance to the Hatem Bridge and along Superior Street. The city will also receive a $20,000 grant to develop a living fence of shrubbery and other plants at its downtown water treatment plant.

It's not only nonprofit agencies that are merging these days, but local philanthropies wanting more bang for their buck.About a third of the 70 groups in the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG) are collaborating by pooling funds to promote community development in Baltimore and public service by youth statewide.The two types of initiatives, just ending their first year, are easily the most extensive collaborations ever done by grant-makers in Maryland, said Betsy S. Nelson, executive director of ABAG.

Baltimore lags seriously behind comparable cities in its neighborhood development efforts because of an array of organizational problems, a new study says - a conclusion undisputed by a cross section of civic leaders. Baltimore lacks clearly defined development goals, and it needs more financial and leadership assistance from its leading companies, more focused support from business groups and better leadership of public development groups, the report says. City officials say they know the development effort is falling short.

So much for transparency in Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration. Mr. CityStat cum StateStat professes a love for data but shrouds the truth with the same gusto with which he bares his biceps in sleeveless T-shirts. Take the planned move of the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) from Anne Arundel County to Prince George's County. Discussions surrounding the change have been going on for over a year and earlier this month became almost final with the selection of a developer and location.

Frederick W. Glassberg, a one-time Rouse Co. executive who became a prominent real estate and community developer in Howard County, died Sept. 15 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 77. A native of New York City who was raised in nearby New Rochelle, Mr. Glassberg earned three degrees: a bachelor's in government and politics from Wesleyan University (1955), a law degree from New York University (1958) and an MBA from Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland)