Developers already have shown some interest in redeveloping Kingsley Park - a rundown, 18-acre apartment complex in Essex - into new affordable housing for seniors and working people.
But they'd have an even greater interest if the county were to tack on 10 acres of the adjacent Tall Trees park to create a 28-acre site within shouting distance of Hopkins Creek, officials said.
Using 10 acres of the park on the south side of Old Eastern Avenue would mean developers could add units, making the project more economically feasible.
Built during Word War II, the Kingsley Park complex includes 311 subsidized apartments along Gail and Dartford roads.
The county paid the owner, Landex Corp., about $3 million to take control of the crime-ridden complex earlier this year. Tenants are moving out, with everyone set to leave by the end of December.
Kingsley Park zoning allows up to 288 units, not including reductions due to wetlands. Adding 10 acres of park land at the same density of 16 units per acre would allow up to 448 units.
The land was purchased with county money, not state Project Open Space money that is typically designated for parks, said Mary Harvey, director of the county's Office of Community Conservation.
But such a transfer would still involve selling publicly owned land, acquired under threat of condemnation to create Tall Trees park, to a private developer.
The transfer idea will require more legal research and feedback from citizens before any decision is made, county officials said during an Oct. 23 community meeting at the Essex library.
At the meeting were at least three people representing developers, including Wayne Frazier, a black developer who has done a number of minor subdivisions in the county.
A "dream team of diverse equity players and contractors," including a black person, a Hispanic person and a woman, is interested in bidding on the project, he said.
If they win the contract, it could open the door to more involvement by minorities in both investment and construction in the county, he said.
The county is conducting a disparity study to make sure minorities and women have the opportunity to get their fair share of contracts.
"This could set a precedent," Frazier said about the Kingsley Park project.
Redevelopment of the Kingsley Park site was one of many ideas discussed during the recent visit to Essex and Middle River by an urban design assistance team to talk about ways to capitalize on the area's strengths.
The county has conducted similar UDAT reviews in Dundalk and Randallstown, as part of public-private efforts to revive older areas of the county.
Plans for affordable, owner- occupied housing are welcomed in Essex, where redevelopment projects such as nearby WaterView and Hopewell Point are priced too high for many young couples who want to stay in the area, said elementary school teacher Julie Gaynor, who attended the Oct. 23 meeting.
County takes over
Now that Baltimore County owns Kingsley Park, it plans to hire a facilitator to run a design workshop with input from citizens, then sell the site to a builder.
Proposals from firms are due to the county purchasing department by Oct. 29. The company selected will host at least four community planning sessions, known as charrettes, before June 2005.
The design and charrette contract is expected to total $60,000 to $100,000, according to the county purchasing department.
Ideas coming out of the charrettes would be presented at a town meeting next fall.
The meeting at the Essex library was to begin the process of "brainstorming possibilities," Harvey said.
The process for redeveloping Kingsley Park in some ways will resemble the process that was used to turn the delapidated Riverdale apartments into the WaterView community in that the county will sell land to a builder.
Different, however, is the fact that the design and configuration of the site will be developed with input from the public, planners said.
Also different is the HUD requirement that 74 percent of the housing units sell for "affordable" prices for at least 15 years.
Prices would range from $160,000 to $260,000 for what is considered a "modest" home for a family of four earning up to $80,000 a year, county housing officials said.
Also included in the "affordable" category will be rental units for seniors aged 60 and over with incomes of up to $25,000 a year, officials said. Rent would run about $600 for a one-bedroom apartment.
The remaining 26 percent of the housing units would sell at market rates, which presently run from the mid- $300,000s at WaterView to the east off Eastern Boulevard to more than $400,000 at Hopewell Pointe just to the north along Hopkins Creek, Harvey said.
Design and layout
Redevelopment of the Kingsley Park site may be a chance to use the county's proposed Renaissance regulations, which allow relief from setback and other variances to allow for innovative design, officials said.
Units for seniors do not necessarily have to be incorporated into a tall building that looks institutional, planners said.
Alternatives could include buildings grouped around a courtyard, or groups of cottages for seniors interspersed with market or family housing in the complex.
Designs new to the Baltimore market, including so-called Charleston houses that fit well on narrow lots, could also be introduced.
"It's a way to introduce people to what they may not have seen," said Pat Keller, director of the county's planning office.
A rectangular Charleston house is turned 90 degrees so that a short side faces the street and what would have been the front, sometimes with a porch, overlooks a side yard.
Charleston houses can be built with one or two stories or as duplexes, with room to extend the house farther back into the lot if more room is needed.
Other ideas included building garages behind houses with living space above to accommodate adult relatives.
Walkable community
At the Oct. 23 session, planners also talked about easing connections to other parts of the community around Josenhan's Corner at Stemmers Run Road and Old Eastern Avenue.
The goal is to create a walkable neighborhood, with easy access between Kingsley Park and local schools, churches and nearby retailers.
Some of the ideas proposed by planners included:
- Increasing the number of crosswalks across a narrower Old Eastern Avenue, connecting Tall Trees Park to Kingsley Park.
- Building a walking trail from Tall Trees Park to Hopkins Creek, which would require easements or acquisition of some privately owned land.
- Working with the Salvo family to revitalize the nearby Country Ridge shopping center off Back River Neck Road. Planners suggested converting a closed Ames department store used for a flea market into an indoor recreation center.
A resident of WaterView also suggested that building an indoor community swimming pool at either Country Ridge or at Tall Trees Park could create jobs for teenagers in the neighborhood.
Community center with gym, police substation planned
The 50-acre Tall Trees park in Essex was a rundown housing complex for thousands of people before Baltimore County spent $19 million to buy out the owners and knock down the buildings.
The county's Development Review Committee was scheduled to review plans for amenities at the newly created park on Oct. 25.
Proposed is a 13,000-square-foot community center at the southeast corner of Stemmers Run Road and Eastern Boulevard.
The center would include a 6,000-square-foot gym, a 4,000-square-foot police substation and a 3,000-square-foot community meeting room as well as parking.
Also planned are a basketball court, a baseball diamond, an athletic field, picnic pavilions, tot lots, nature trails and a storm water management pond.
Visiting planners from North Carolina suggested landscaping the pond so that it looks less like an engineering project and more like a wetland.
They also suggested building a nature trail running from nearby Stemmers Run Middle School through the park to Hopkins Creek.
Building the trail, however, may involve acquiring easements or private property.
