Board Members Present: Michele Baskin (Secretary), Corey Jennings (President), Sadie Baker (Treasurer), Josh Greenfeld, Matt Williams, Sam Solomon
Staff member – Jennifer McKenzie, Amanda Rothschild
Total Attendees
~ 25, + Jones, + Planning reps, Regina Boyce, + Ramos, ~ 6 on Zoom
Start: 7:05
End: 8:45
Zoom Recording – Passcode: j&1XMu6H
Votes: New GRIA Treasurer – Current Treasurer is Sam Solomon (for past 2 years), her goal has been to bring our financial accounting into the 21st century (streamline password management, bring in professional bookkeepers to handle increased grant awards, switch us over to QuickBooks, ensuring that someone with a financial background is not needed to maintain the position).
- Sam nominates Sadie Baker for the position of Treasurer in this off-cycle election
- Matt seconds
- Measure passes – 19 ayes, 0 nos, 3 abstentions
Community Announcements
- Night Market – Friday 7/19 5 pm – 9 pm, every 3rd Friday
- Service Center Open House – Sunday 7/21 9 am – 1 pm, 2507 N Howard St.
- Miracle Church – Back to School drive Aug 18th, books, school supplies, games, prizes, activities; Oct 19th – Praise Pooch Party
- Community Clean up – Saturday 7/20 9:30 am – 11am, meet at CGA, Mount Royal Sponsor
Agenda
- Presentation from Department of Planning on Baltimore City Comprehensive Plan Draft
- Alex Bauer (Equity and Engagement Planner), Marie McSweeney Anderson is Remington’s specific planner (marie.anderson@baltimorecity.gov)
- https://www.planourbaltimore.com/
- Last updated plan was 2006, state mandated to be updated every 10 years
- Housing Market Typology slide
- Remington is Type C – low price variance with relatively high median sales price, low distress, mix of owner and renter occupied
- The type helps to determine the investments from City
- Community Development Framework
- Identifies Impact Investment Areas which Remington does not qualify as
- Land Use Map
- Remington would not see any immediate changes
- Current vision should reflect input from the GRIA Land Use Committee
- Remington has the ability to densify and increase commercial amenities, while retaining its residential character and industrial roots.
- Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)
- Encourages mixed use development around transit hubs to increase intensity of land use
- Currently, Remington does not have any TOD designations
- Other Plans and Topics of Potential Interest
- Greenway Trails Network – creates a system of green nodes and corridors, 35 mile loop to integrate trails and the Inner Harbor Promenade
- INSPIRE – initiative that works to develop the ¼ to ½ mile radius around the newly constructed 21st Century Schools, closest to Remington is Robert Poole
- Public comment ends 11:59 pm on July 30th, “News from the Northern” you can sign up for as well
- Amanda Rothschild is a ‘super reviewer” on this plan and is open to receiving feedback from community members to make suggestions
- Q&A:
- Corey – Will this produce a report with recommendations for things in the Land Use Map/Plan and zoning changes? A – The cycle frequency of this plan is shifting to occur more frequently which should assist in this process, but nothing formal; also recommending an every 3 year cycle of looking at what is existing in the Land Use Map
- Bill – Is Planning Department interested in looking into code enforcement which can act as a barrier to improving communities? (gives examples of absent landlords, tenant getting fines, registered and licensed landlord process is opaque etc.) A – There is a section for dealing with vacant housing and code enforcement.
- Q on how equity is going to actually be implemented and utilized and not just mentioned? A – We have a 4 part lens that we have borrowed for using as a framework for looking at the plan and its impact as a whole
- GRIA Treasurer – see voting item above
- Meet & Greet with District 14 City Council member – Odette Ramos
- Apology for not attending any meetings recently with a lot of events booked on Wednesday nights
- 29th street is mostly the boundary between 14th and 12th District (R House 14th, Greenmount School in 12th)
- Working on potholes on 29th
- Does a lot of work on housing and community development (prior work in this area), driven by the history of Baltimore City’s racist housing policies from 1911, still largely defines a segregated city, trying to reverse that and increase investment in underserved communities, In Rem process, this goes into the Comprehensive plan and the IIA areas
- Vacant properties – wants to tax vacant properties at a higher rate (assist from Del Boyce through General Assembly), point is not to raise funds, but to take properties through the In Rem process above
- Affordable Housing – bill to create more inclusionary housing, big development have to hold aside 10% of units to go to 50-60% of median, utilizes a tax credit; more is needed but it is a starting point
- Leading on the issue of preventing owners from losing their homes from unpaid taxes and bills and instead get them support and plans and then taken out of the tax sale
- First and only Hispanic member – helped create office of immigrant affairs, improved language access, Spanish 311 coming!
- Working hard to get speed bumps, traffic calming and resolve community issues including transit like Circulator access
- Issue retaining housing/code inspector, advocated for a bill to raise salaries for the position to increase chances of hiring and retaining those specific staff
- Test your lead pipes! All water main pipes are lead free, but some service lines may still have lead pipes. https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/dpw-wants-know-material-your-water-service-line , there are government funds to do the replacement work.
- Water pumping station off I-83 and 29th with a green tile roof and brick building – DPW is going to upgrade it but will be replacing the pipes from the Druid Lake reservoirs, will be some noise (from blasting), DPW will come to future meeting to explain as 83 will have to be closed at night for work, notice to proceed by Oct, major work next Spring
- Sign up for the electronic newsletter (https://www.odetteramos.com/)
- Q&A –
- Bill – Did you know that citations go to general fund and not housing fund? A – Everything that generates revenue goes to general fund, to change it, we can negotiate in budget, create a charter amendment that will allow for creation of fund, use afford housing trust fund; more importantly how much are we making? Has asked for that info.
- Amanda – How is vacant property defined, can it be changed and is that a barrier to getting problem houses dealt with? A – Puts a vacant building notice on a building that looks uninhabitable by a housing inspector (comes from 311 reports from the community). (13200 with those notices) There are clearly many more that don’t meet that definition but are obviously vacant. Problem is it must, by law, be deemed uninhabitable. In talks to lower the threshold for the definition so that more action can be taken (take a look at water as a sign of vacancy, high grass and weeds, additional indicators), Boyce adds on – vacant but looks habitable is not technically actionable
- Josh – Difficulties with community things like 28th St bike lane, JHU building project, how can we better communicate the community’s preferences? A – Anything involving zoning, my process is to go to immediate residents first with the requestors of the change (development) and then communicate with community associations about the meetings and process (agrees that she needs to do better about that second part) Corey with a follow up about process – near neighbor process is valuable, but how does that align with the larger community and citywide plans that might be in conflict with the desires of the nearest neighbors, how does that not create conflict and blockage? A – Haven’t had that particular challenge other than the JHU issue, brings up book bindery development that the neighbors opposed but did aim to increase housing stock to meet goals, revised project will still do that, but just less numbers of units;
- Q on the billboards on 28th, they are a blight on the community, Clear Channel bought them and grandfathered them in, can we reverse it? A – they were grandfathered into the zoning, no new billboards, cannot reverse that as they are technically “non conforming” which is allowed just like all of our current housing with setbacks. Would need to basically buy the property. In Rem can also work with vacant commercial properties, can also cite it for graffiti and disrepair.
- Meet & Greet with District 12 City Council candidate – Jermaine Jones
- Really here to listen and absorb
- Get communications and contact info to distribute – info@jermaineajones.com
- No challenger in the general election, Sworn in on Dec 5th
- Lived in Oliver, worked as a Union Rep, community organizer around Community Benefits Agreement
- Wants to use background to help empower the communities to make things happen collectively
- Q&A
- Sam – Complete Streets & Transportation, we’ll be talking to you about? A – Learned about how systemic the problem was as his issues in Oliver were so widespread in the communities he was campaigning in
- Sarah on Fawcett – Trash building up in Lower Remington A – City cans were removed, Charles Village pays for those cans through a benefits district