Harford County needs to work harder, if it wants to attract millenials. It also has to not only fix its traffic woes, but also decide what kind of community it wants to be, business leaders and residents told county Planning and Zoning Director Bradley Killian Monday evening.
The forum, held at Harford Community College's Darlington Hall, was part of the county's HarfordNEXT master plan process. Killian's department has been busy gathering feedback on a vision for Harford's future through 2035.
The meeting was organized by the county's Chamber of Commerce to offer "the business point of view on what needs to be done to keep a robust economy in the future," according to an advertisement for the event.
Several attendees said attracting millenials to live in Harford is especially difficult, as they are looking for mixed-use communities, transportation options that may not involve driving and a variety of dining and shopping opportunities. Five years ago, the Pew Center for Research defined millenials as "American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium." Their entry into careers and first jobs has been badly set back by the Great Recession, but they are more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures as well as about the overall state of the nation, according to that Pew Center study released in February 2010.
"We are pulling a lot of people from around the country. They are not moving to Harford County, no matter how hard we try. They are moving to the city," Jill McClune, of the Army Alliance, said in reference to Aberdeen Proving Ground.
She said the only people who move to the county are those who come from rural communities and are able to buy property.
She suggested more conversation about capitalizing on the business in the Route 40 corridor, especially Edgewood, which is not a municipality.
"A lot of people think that is a great opportunity for mixed use that could target millenials," she said.
Paul Muddiman, who has been involved in many county developments with Morris & Ritchie Associates, said the concept of mixed use "is great," but has not been applied in Harford County.
Killian wondered out loud what it would take to get there. Ed Steere, a land development consultant who has been involved with community planning in the county, said residential density needed to come first. Killian agreed, saying: "Retail will follow doorknobs."
McClune said there are small towns around the country similar to Aberdeen, but have a more robust neighborhood around a train station, where people walk to the station and frequent shops.
The City of Aberdeen has been working on a transit-oriented development plan around its station.
"I agree wholeheartedly that it has to be planned," McClune said about organizing development around transit, pointing out towns used to be "inherently mixed use."
"Bel Air is an example where I think it is starting to happen and there is more openness to people living [near a downtown]," she said.
Chad Avalos, with Paidon Products, said transportation is "extremely important" to him and the younger generation, and the county needs to ensure good travel times and provide good jobs to keep millenials.
Steere said his children are deciding where to live and look favorably on Baltimore.
"There is a certain lifestyle to living in the city," he said. "There's a lot of balls in the air for these millenials to decide [where to live]. We can get lost in that."
"Are we wasting our time looking at millenials or are we looking at people who are looking to transform being a millennial to being a family person?" he wondered.
Steere said the Route 40 corridor has the commercial infrastructure in place, but there is not enough multi-family housing in the county. Apartment buildings, for example, could be put behind the former Ames shopping center "they left to rot," he said.
Although he said he knows people are "uptight" about the controversial proposed Walmart on Route 924 in the Emmorton area, the site was set up for residential before it was zoned for commercial use, he said. "It could have been mixed use and it could have been nice," he said.
Dan Cudone, of TriState Commercial Realty, said the BRAC process at APG failed to bring the influx of people and development that was promised.
"There's some real issues along Route 40 that need to be addressed, including sewer and water," he said. "There is a lot of commercial unrest now in this county and on the Route 40 [corridor] because BRAC did not do what it was supposed to do."
"I think our government needs to talk closely with Aberdeen," he told Killian, adding he is a commercial broker, who has worked with "all the developers up there" and noted "they are not happy."
Killian said Harford County does have some positive development, including warehouse and distribution facilities. "We are actually running out of space," he said about those types of properties.
Retail is also "doing well," he said, although a lot of developments are just "cannibalizing" older shopping centers.
Cudone said defense contractors have laid off employees and putting their properties on the market, adding there is competition between tenants and landlords, especially at the Water's Edge complex in Belcamp.
Craig Ward, of Frederick Ward Associates, agreed that mixed use "is a great idea," but "the commercial piece is not going to show up until the rooftops are seen."
He also said the county is in "dire need" of more multi-family development, as it has very little land zoned for denser residential properties.
Ward also said the MARC train station gets "like six trains" daily, which is "not an economic driver that is going to drive [transit-oriented development]."
Alan Sweatman, vice-president of the Friends of Harford land use group, suggested better transit to the train station, saying: "Why not make it easier for people to get from the municipalities to the train station by having a fast bus service each way?"
Transportation possibilities came up at the meeting, as they have at past HarfordNEXT discussions. Killian said the county is wrapping up a study on the Route 22 corridor, which he hopes will improve transportation "with the recognition that we cannot just add lanes."
Like Steere, others also suggested deciding which demographics to target in Harford, pointing out families have flocked to the county.
Zsolt Bicskey, of Boaz Consulting, originally of Hungary, said he has only lived in the county for a year since moving up from Baltimore, but already felt compelled to get involved in the community.
"I am willing to sacrifice everything to know my kids will be safe here, the schools are good," he said, adding Bel Air has a "country feeling" and a "township community."
Diana Klug, who said she is a Harford resident, said she is not a millennial, but still wants to live "in a wonderful community with a community center" and have options for living with her grandchildren.
"It's a fabulous county; I can't imagine living anywhere else and I would like to stay here," she said.