So, what's next?

Where will Baltimore-area residents settle after the rapid conversion of farms to suburbs slows and all the big tracts of land are taken?

"The focus will be on redevelopment, reuse of areas," says Arnold F. "Pat" Keller, Baltimore County's planning director.

There are still years worth of home lots available in the area's suburbs, but Maryland's anti-sprawl plan and efforts to preserve rural land mean that development patterns of the last 50 years will change.

Public planners and developers realize that as the Baby Boom generation ages and fewer young families with children look for big suburban homes, different values and lifestyles may become more attractive -- and marketable.

"We don't have kids at home anymore. Why are we out in the suburbs?" says Michael Pawlukiewicz, director of environmental land-use policy at the Washington-based Urban Land Institute, offering his domestic situation to illustrate how many middle-aged people may begin thinking about long commutes to work.

Perceptions a problem

Obstacles to change loom, however.

"How do you address the public perception that density is bad?" asks James T. Noonan, coordinator of Smart Growth planning under Gov. Parris N. Glendening. "How do you make it attractive to people in the housing market?"

As the area's oldest suburb, Baltimore County is already encouraging constructing housing close to the Beltway and demolishing blighted apartments in Randallstown and Essex-Middle River for redevelopment. The county is also attempting to attract upscale homes and businesses to its waterfront.

Not all anti-density sentiments are wrong, Keller says. People rightfully object to developments that lack creativity or vision.

Instead of block after block of identical homes, several attractive new communities along Reisterstown Road near the Beltway offer more.

Avalon, Cobblestone, Grey Rock -- all expensive mixed-use developments -- are examples, as are the huge retirement communities of Charlestown in Catonsville and Oak Crest Village in Carney.

"They have open spaces, amenities, swimming pools," Keller says. Those features, together with their close-in locations, make them attractive.

Business sees changes

Builders may be listening.

The July issue of Builder Magazine, a trade publication, was devoted to the anti-sprawl sentiment and how builders can adapt and prosper.

People who moved to the suburbs to escape crime and traffic jams are finding that those problems have followed them, the magazine says. There's a growing demand for builders who can redevelop an older area, providing quality housing with privacy and a location close to services and jobs.

Keller says, "There's a life beyond, but it's not the world we've been used to the last 40-50 years."

Pub Date: 3/14/99