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December 6, 2000 Dennis Canavan Dear Mr. Canavan: The Baltimore Regional Partnership, a coalition of environmental, civic, and smart growth organizations promoting better land use and transportation planning throughout the Baltimore metropolitan area, believes that the Parole area provides an excellent site to create a showcase for smart growth. The 1994 Parole Growth Management Area plan and the work done by the Parole Growth Management Committee this fall represents a vision for the Parole area which could create such a showcase. The redevelopment of Parole Plaza by Freedman & Company Real Estate, Inc. is the key project which will determine the future of Parole. If the first phase of this project is redeveloped as a standard Wal-Mart with associated retail, the opportunity to create a smart growth showcase will be lost. Instead, the County should require standards for the proposed first phase which would provide a first step towards the broader redevelopment of the site to create a town center in Parole. These standards should be part of a phasing plan to guide both the first phase of development and subsequent phases of development, and to supplement, and in some cases supersede, the conceptual sketches submitted in Freedman & Company’s phasing plan. Anne Arundel County must take the initiative now to create such a phasing plan for Parole Plaza to ensure that the requirements of the 1994 Parole Growth Management Area plan are incorporated in any development on the site. In the first phase of development, the County should require, as a condition of the grading permit for construction of the Wal-Mart and associated shops, construction of the basic infrastructure which defines the general shape of the overall plan for redevelopment of the site. This infrastructure must include the plan’s internal streets, public plazas, stormwater management system, and facilities for internal bicycle and pedestrian circulation. As part of the first phase, Freedman & Company should be required to construct Holly Avenue from Somerville Road to Forest Drive and to deed to the County the right-of-way for the east-west street connecting Riva Road and Holly Avenue, in order to create the town center grid envisioned in the 1994 plan. Holly Avenue should be constructed with sidewalks and bike lanes or wide shoulders on both sides of the street to facilitate pedestrian and bicycle access. Freedman & Company also should be required to construct the public plaza at the corner of Holly Avenue and Somerville Road as part of the first phase. Both the Wal-Mart and any associated retail should be required to to have direct access from the internal streets or plazas of the town center. The associated retail should have direct frontage on internal streets or plazas within the town center with zero or minimal setbacks from the sidewalk, window space along the street, and parking in the rear or on the side of buildings, not in front. The stormwater management system components which Freedman & Company build in the first phase should be required to meet the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas 10% rule for intensively developed areas, requiring a 10% reduction in predevelopment pollutant loadings. This standard is appropriate given the current state of the South River watershed and the expected further decline in water quality in the watershed due to future development. Including this basic infrastructure in the first phase of the plan would allow for some smart growth principles to be incorporated in the first phase, would encourage future development around the internal streets and public plazas, and would help restore the critically impacted South River watershed. Before additional phases of development on the Parole Plaza site are permitted, the County must provide transportation improvements for the area. Improvements must include mass transit options, an intermodal transportation center, transportation demand management (TDM) programs, and promotion of Maryland’s Commuter Choice benefits to employers. The County should work with the State to secure funds for these transportation improvements. Once these improvements are provided, the County should allow later phases of development on the site, but must require that these phases create a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly town center district as envisioned in the 1994 plan. The County should require residential units, the construction of a retail district centered around the east-west street, and the two public plazas proposed along the east-west street at the same time as development of the first office tower proposed for the site. At this time, structured parking also must be provided. With transit options and TDM programs in place, the County should consider reducing the site’s parking requirements, especially considering the adverse effects of additional land devoted to parking on the South River watershed and on the character of the town center. In sum, we support the laudable goal of creating an appealing, walkable town center in Parole. We strongly believe that this goal cannot be sustained in the long run without an appropriate phasing plan for the Parole Plaza site which is issued concurrently with permits for the first stage of development. As time for issuance of these permits draws near, Anne Arundel County must act now in order to prevent the strong vision of the County’s citizens for Parole as expressed in the 1994 plan from being lost forever. We look forward to hearing from you about the County’s plans for guiding development on the Parole Plaza site.If you have questions about our recommendations, feel free to contact us or Adam Gordon of the Baltimore Regional Partnership staff at (410) 385-2910. We would be glad to meet with you to answer any questions or respond to any concerns you may have. Sincerely,
cc: Hon. Janet Owens, Anne Arundel County
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Baltimore
Regional Partnership · 512 Orchard Street · Baltimore, MD 21201-1947 |
