Developer James Keelty III began making good on a unique $1 million bargain with Baltimore County government nearly three years ago by handing over $254,964 to be used for affordable housing for the elderly.
Now the county has finally decided to spend $99,480 of the money for its first project -- the conversion of the former St. Luke's convent in Edgemere into an assisted-living home for 15 low-income elderly people. The County Council approved spending the Keelty money Oct. 3.
Frank W. Welsh, the county's director of community development, said the convent project at 2815 Lodge Farm Road is the first one that seemed right for using some of the Keelty money.
Dale McCardle, director of housing for Catholic Charities, developers of the Edgemere project, said his agency just has built a 125-unit apartment project for the elderly on the same land.
It will use the county money and $569,474 from the state to buy and transform the former convent building next door into an assisted-living facility for 15 people.
A change in county zoning laws that made it easier to build assisted-living homes for the elderly in residential areas made that project workable, he said.
The money Mr. Keelty promised the county in 1988 is part of a deal that saw his huge, 2,177-unit Mays Chapel North project designated a Planned Unit Development (PUD). Over an 18-year-span, that designation will allow him to exceed normal zoning restrictions and build 634 additional dwellings, a 43,553-square-foot community shopping center and offices.
The idea is for the 384-acre project on the west side of Interstate 83 north of Padonia Road to be a self-contained community, not just another bedroom housing project.
The PUD designation, one of only two granted to large residential projects by the county so far, will allow the project to develop like one of Columbia's villages, with neighborhood shopping, gas stations and professional offices.
The county's other large (more than 100 acres) PUD is in Owings Mills.
At the time the deal was struck, then-County Executive Dennis F. Rasmussen was in the midst of planning an affordable-housing policy.
Mr. Keelty agreed to pay $1 million to help begin the county's program.
In return, he was not required to include any affordable or subsidized housing in his development.
However, the developer said he hopes to qualify for some of his own money when he builds housing for the elderly there in several years.
So far, 450 townhouses, apartments and condominiums have been built, Mr. Keelty said, and another 50 units are under construction.
Although Mr. Keelty has paid the county $368,354 so far, Mr. Rasmussen was defeated in 1990 and the housing policy was never implemented.