Board Members Present: Corey Jennings (President), Wynn Engle-Pratt (Vice President), Michele Baskin (Secretary), Samantha Solomon (Treasurer), Sadie Baker, Matt Williams, April Welch, Pete Morrill
Staff member – Jennifer McKenzie, Amanda Rothschild
Total Attendees
~ 36, ~ 3 Seawall, 1 Baltimore DOT
Start: 7:07
End: 8:40
Votes:N/A
Community Announcements
- Dumpster Day Saturday November 25th, located at 26th and Huntingdon, starting between 8 and 9 am and going until the dumpster is full
- Free turkeys from Miracle Church, contact pastor Yolanda Hollis by 11/18, miraclechurchbaltimore@gmail.com
- Shop Small Remington Crawl this Saturday all around the neighborhood
- Church of the Guardian Angel Thanksgiving dinner next Thursday 11 am – 1 pm, food pantry is still open the Wednesday prior at 9 am
Agenda
- Overview of GRIA Mission statement and activities
- Seawall Development presentation on projects
- Good Doggy Day (GDD) Care Move (slides 2-4)
- 10+ years in Remington but the 20,000 sq ft current site is in the planned Remington Yards development and is now too small for the business as it has grown (year and a half long waiting list!)
- New proposed space is 35,000 sq ft off 24th at Sisson, constructed with a focus on sound control
- Property is currently zoned C3 with a conditional use needed for the kennel usage
- Will need to continue to plan for drop off and pick up traffic flow
- Old Walmart Project PUD – “Planned Unit Development”, actual piece of council legislation (slides 6-7)
- Includes the old Anderson properties, and the warehouses along 24th which does include the proposed space for GDD and was created before the city-led effort to rewrite the zoning regulations
- Entire area of PUD has been rezoned to C3 since the new zoning legislation and the PUD only applies to the Walmart project which is obsolete, but the PUD needs to be officially repealed
- Q from Bill – Can we change zoning to a C1, TOD, or IMU to better match the uses (future looking) in a near residential area like this? A – Concerned that rezoning would take too long
- Land Use Committee will take a vote on a Letter of Support for the repeal of the PUD at December’s Land Use Meeting, Dec 6th
- “Sisson East” = Remington Yards (slides 9-20)
- Updated project renderings shared that include facades, not just mass drawings
- +/- 200 residential units, internal parking garage, retail and office buildings
- Zoning issues – 3 different zoning areas in the project: IMU-1, C2-Resi/Office, C3 all located in that area which is presenting some challenges
- Requested Variances to the Zoning:
- 76’ height in plan for multifamily building – current zoning of IMU goes to 60, C2 goes to 68; need variance to build higher
- 80’ height in plan for office building – C2 & C3 go to 60; need variance to build higher
- Setback on 28th required to be 20’ per current zoning – would create a 30-35’ sidewalk, would like to hold the current property line (along the existing old building) which is 0.6’ instead, would not change the sidewalk or setback from the current arrangement, hope is to retain the old building at 28th and Sisson which requires this variance
- Setback on 29th required to be 5’ per current zoning – design actually has a deeper setback to 56 for the “front” entrance so a variance is required for the extra space
- Setback on interior sideyard required to be 10’ per current zoning, would like to be 1.3’ instead
- IMU supposed to be 60% commercial on main first floor, request is to go to 0% because this is the residential building portion, there technically will be +/-1500 sq ft commercial space on the corner of 29th and Hampden but it will technically be on the 2nd floor because of the grade
- Land Use Committee will take a vote on a Letter of Support for these variance requests at December’s Land Use Meeting, Dec 6th
- Questions
- Housing cost and affordability for the units – A – this project is not part of low income tax credit deal, discusses other 20/80 Remington projects where 20% of the units are set aside for occupants with 80% AMI (Annual Median Income is based on larger Baltimore area, not Baltimore specifically, and certainly not Remington specifically)
- Retail suggestion, daycare!! – A- focused on grocery and daycare in the larger suite of projects, haven’t figured exact placements yet but likely not this specific project
- Units along Hampden are apartments or houses? A – Will be apartments with street level entrances not interior building entrances, streetscaped to more closely mirror the homes on the east side of the street.
- 7-11 site – very early in planning stages! (slides 22-23)
- Current 7-11 lease is up at end of 2024
- Current idea is a 13000 sq ft green space plaza next to a mixed use building smaller in scale than Remington Row
- Working to try and keep 7-11 in that space and heard the community feedback that it is a desired partner to remain, still at 24 hours a day
- Would allow for one more commercial space
- Could start Jan 2025 or take even longer depending on planning
- Jed – This is the one chance to redesign Remington Ave to make it more pedestrian friendly (close off Cresmont!)
- Good Doggy Day (GDD) Care Move (slides 2-4)
- Baltimore City Department of Transportation – Chaquetta Wallace, Community Engagement Liaison Officer
- 26th Street Resurfacing:
- Maintenance project to repair the gutter pans along the south side of the road and repair around the manhole cover and the road dip that has occurred, about 8 ft total, total resurfacing will occur post bridge work, notification would have had to go out for a full resurfacing project, for maintenance the standard is to bring it up to grade but not to make improvements
- Q – This will make it less safe as it will allow cars to go faster, can we get speed humps as part of this work now?
- Q – Can we get a stop sign at 26th & Huntington? 3 requests have been put in and denied, traffic volume has increased now so the volume differential has changed but also Fed Hill has had stop signs put in with even greater differentials than this intersection.
- Q – This work crosses an intersection which should trigger the Clean Streets legislation and demand the installation of the speed humps
- Maintenance project to repair the gutter pans along the south side of the road and repair around the manhole cover and the road dip that has occurred, about 8 ft total, total resurfacing will occur post bridge work, notification would have had to go out for a full resurfacing project, for maintenance the standard is to bring it up to grade but not to make improvements
- Exit closure off 28th Street:
- Big Jump cleanup is closing the ramp from the north and Druid Park Lake Drive so vegetation can be removed. Should be completed and reopened by early afternoon.
- Sisson Street Bridge:
- Meeting with CSX last week, close to an agreement on repair and costs, contract docs will then need to be updated and sent to the appropriate state agencies for approval, then project can go to be bid for construction. So not soon, but there is movement.
- 26th Street Resurfacing:
- Community Cleanup this Saturday
- Join us for the Big Jump community cleanup! We’ll be clearing the link between our neighborhoods in Reservoir Hill and Remington, cutting back the overgrowth and picking up trash along the way. Supplies will be provided, including gloves, bags, and trash pickers.
- Where: Meet at Lakeview Towers, 727 Druid Park Lake Drive. We will work from there up to 28th And Huntingdon in Remington. A ride will also be available from the Church of the Guardian Angel in Remington.
- When: Meet at 10am for coffee and snacks! Cleanup from 10am-1pm.
- Sign up here: bit.ly/BigJumpCleanUp
- Contact Jen at Volunteers@GRIAonline.org or 410-914-8015 with any questions!