Redevelopment

A West Baltimore housing complex will be the focus of a redevelopment plan funded by a federal revitalization grant as part of a local effort to combat decades of racial and economic segregation, officials announced Friday. Baltimore is one of 17 cities receiving Choice Neighborhood Initiative planning grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Working with urban design and planning firm Goody Clancy & Associates, Jubilee Baltimore Inc. will use the $213,000 and additional contributions from the city of Baltimore and nonprofits to create a redevelopment plan to reconnect Bolton Hill to western neighbors such as Madison Park, Druid Heights and Upton, said Charlie Duff, Jubilee's director.

With residents being bombarded by fliers, robocalls, even a telephone opinion survey, the fight over the future of the former Solo Cup site in Baltimore County is taking on the trappings of a political campaign. As the debate continues about whether the county should allow a Wegmans supermarket and other development at the former manufacturing plant on Reisterstown Road, two other developers in the area are fighting the project — and each side is trying to rally community support.

L et's say you are a governor and need your state legislature to renew a highly effective economic development program that has helped a single jurisdiction, albeit one with a high concentration of poverty, much more than the rest of your state. Would you: A. Patiently explain to lawmakers the program's benefits, the rare opportunity to match a proven strategy with a community in need, and expect them to do the right thing. B. Bribe them. If you chose A, you have probably just killed the Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit, a program that provides developers with a financial incentive to renovate older buildings that has helped bring an enormous amount of economic revitalization to Baltimore.

Maryland's highest court has cleared the way for the city to move forward with its plans for the long-delayed $152 million Superblock project. The Maryland Court of Appeals dismissed Friday a lawsuit by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos that challenged the project. In a 4-3 decision, the court said Angelos did not have standing to sue, affirming a Baltimore Circuit Court ruling to dismiss the complaint. Long stymied by legal challenges, the project involves construction of a 269-unit apartment building, a 650-space underground parking garage and shops called Lexington Square near Lexington and Howard streets.

As the president of the largest trade group of commercial contractors in Maryland, I want to add my voice of support to the State Center redevelopment project planned for Midtown Baltimore. Given the tumultuous couple of years the construction industry has endured (of course, as difficult as things have been, we recognize that Maryland has fared significantly better than the rest of the country), State Center represents a tremendous opportunity for local contractors. But moreover, State Center represents a substantial opportunity for the fortunes of Baltimore and surrounding regions, as this project taps into the heart of the city's untapped market potential.

Peter Angelos has a long history of philanthropy and has amply demonstrated his love for Baltimore over the years. Why, then, is he standing in the way of the desperately needed redevelopment of the State Center project? Our community group, Midtown Matters, has the goal of making Baltimore a better place to live. Our current focus is on the State Center project. The working-class communities surrounding the proposed revitalization area have worked tirelessly, for more than five years and through hundreds of meetings, to make this project a reality.

Howard school officials have told the County Council that the plan to redevelop central Columbia could leave them without good ways to deal with unexpected school crowding once the work is in progress. Meanwhile, the council received assurances of cooperation on the plan to renovate Merriweather Post Pavilion and integrate it with Symphony Woods. The County Council discussed both topics last week, along with the dispute over affordable housing and issues involving environmental improvements and open space.

We agree with the conclusion of The Sun's editorial about the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit of 2010 ("Rethinking redevelopment," Feb. 8) -- that the program has been a proven stimulus for economic development. However, its characterization of our motives in proposing changes to it was incorrect. When you have a program that has been successful for 14 years, you can: A. Rest on its laurels. B. Look for ways to improve it. The O'Malley administration chose B. In fact, the track record of the program as a catalyst for construction jobs and neighborhood revitalization was one reason for wanting it to be extended elsewhere -- to tightly defined places jointly identified by the state and local governments where growth should be channeled.

Redevelopment and revitalization have emerged as key themes in the matchup between Democrat Vicki Almond and Republican Jon Herbst for the District 2 Baltimore County Council seat being vacated by Kevin Kamenetz, the Democratic nominee for county executive. To Almond, the strip malls dotted with vacant storefronts and clusters of gas stations and convenience stores in parts of the district indicate the need for comprehensive redevelopment plans, particularly for the Reisterstown Road corridor and downtown Pikesville.

The city's Board of Estimates approved two deals Wednesday aimed at redeveloping portions of Pennsylvania Avenue in Druid Heights and Washington Boulevard in Pigtown, the Baltimore Development Corp. said. The BDC, the city's quasi-governmental economic development arm, said the development plans would bring mixed-use projects to what are now vacant and decaying stretches of two Main Street commercial corridors. The city is selling five properties, at 2101 through 2111 Pennsylvania Ave., for $13,000 to Sphinx Club Complex LLC, the BDC said.

I looked once, then twice at a Light Street building across from the Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. Was the old Epstein's department store returning to Baltimore? The answer came from its developer, Arsh Mirmiran. His new 93-unit apartment complex totally fills the site of the institution where so many South Baltimoreans shopped for decades until it closed in 1991. The apartment project so replicates the old store's facade that I was fooled. That is where the comparison ends.

The Cordish Cos., known for pairing urban-style entertainment districts with sports venues, will work with the San Francisco Giants to build a $1.6 billion waterfront development near the club's ballpark and is planning three more sports-anchored projects in Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and St. Louis. The Baltimore-based developer of Power Plant Live at the Inner Harbor and the Maryland Live Casino at Arundel Mills mall is seeing a burst of activity in sports-themed mixed-use development.

A developer working to transform vacant, city-owned properties in a North Baltimore neighborhood into hundreds of new and rehabbed homes received city design approval Thursday for 69 new apartments that will get under way this fall. The city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel approved the layout and plans for five new buildings that Telesis Corp. will develop in the blocks bounded by East 20th and East 21st streets, Barclay Street and Greenmount Avenue. The company plans to start construction in September on 69 one-, two- and three-bedroom units in buildings that will resemble traditional Baltimore rowhouses.

Litigants in the case against the State Center development in Baltimore are decrying a bill that passed the House of Delegates setting out new rules for public-private partnerships in Maryland. At issue is a provision that allows a party in such a suit to appeal a circuit court judge's denial of a motion to dismiss before the two sides are forced to exchange documents through the discovery process, and before they are allowed to present evidence at trial. The coalition of downtown property owners who are suing to stop State Center - attorneyPeter G. Angeloschief among them - is calling the bill, which applies to current as well as future cases, an extraordinary intervention by the legislature in an ongoing court proceeding.

A decade after the Department of Veterans Affairs closed its hospital at Fort Howard, most of the buildings at the sprawling Baltimore County waterfront property are boarded up. A big rusty pole in front of the old facility has no flag. But there are plans to turn the site into a huge, mixed-use development for veterans and senior citizens. Nearby residents oppose the developer's proposal, but the Department of Veterans Affairs is moving forward with the project, which has the backing of elected officials.

Maryland's second-highest court has thrown out an attempt by residents to revive a failed petition drive challenging Howard County's plan for redevelopment of downtown Columbia. The Court of Special Appeals turned down Thursday a challenge by Russell Swatek, who with a group called Taxpayers Against Giveaways organized a petition against a zoning amendment approved by the County Council in 2010. The group had sought to bring the measure before voters as a referendum. The county's Board of Elections turned down the petition, saying the group didn't collect enough valid signatures.

Public testimony on ZRA 113, the redevelopment of downtown Columbia, will continue before the Howard County Planning Board at 7 p.m. March 5 in Tyson Room II in the county's offices at 8930 Stanford Blvd., Columbia. The public is invited to present their concerns and suggestions to the advisory board on the future of downtown Columbia. Those wishing to testify at the hearing can sign up beginning at 5 p.m. Information: 410-313-4303.

As he often does, 97-year-old Dorsey Yearley sat on a bench with his cane in his lap outside the Giant store in the Rotunda in Hampden, people-watching on a Friday afternoon. "This is plenty convenient for us," said Yearley, who lives at Roland Park Place, one of two retirement communities across the street. But his cheerful tone turned mournful when told that one of his most reliable and essential destinations in the mall, the Giant Food store, is departing after 41 years and is relocating down the street to the Fresh & Green's store, formerly a Superfresh, in the Greenspring Tower Shopping Center.

A project to rebuild affordable housing and a large recreation center in Ellicott City will begin in early December with the demolition of the Hilltop Housing complex. At the same time, Howard County officials are turning to state lawmakers as they try to secure $500,000 in state bond funding toward replacing an adjacent recreation center that they hope will be a lure for market-rate renters in the mixed-income community that is on the drawing board. Work at the Hilltop site and the new recreation center will comprise the first phase of redevelopment.