What's the difference between Harbor East and Towson? The former has a stunning water view. The latter has $800 million in private development underway without a penny of tax incentives. The Baltimore County seat may not have the reputation for glitz, but a building boom is rapidly transforming it into a vibrant urban core unlike almost anything else in the Baltimore suburbs.
County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Councilman David Marks have been pushing that transformation, but Mr. Marks has come to the conclusion that zoning rules created for 1950s-style low-density development are ill suited to produce the kind of community downtown Towson is capable of becoming. It's not that the existing rules have stopped development — the new apartments, restaurants, office, retail and entertainment complexes recently completed or underway are testament to that — it's that they require so many adjustments and exceptions as to make the process unwieldy and unpredictable. He has proposed, and the council is expected to approve tonight, a request for the planning board to study the idea of creating a Towson-specific zone with rules specifically designed for urban, mixed-use development.
It's a terrific idea, and one that is overdue. The rules for a place like Towson — and certainly for what Towson is rapidly becoming — should be different from those in places like White Marsh or Owings Mills. But they still need to be predictable so that developers and residents alike know what to expect in terms of parking, traffic mitigation, open space and the like. They should be developed through an inclusive process that also recognizes the needs of the residential neighborhoods that surround downtown Towson — areas that have long grappled with problems related to college student rental housing. If we are going to encourage the urbanization of downtown Towson, we need also to clearly demarcate what that area is.
The real issue with managing development through legislation — as has happened many times in downtown Towson in recent years over matters ranging from signage to parking requirements — is not that it is time consuming but that it provides the opportunity for backroom dealings and special interest politics. The way zoning and development decisions are made on the County Council is that members give almost complete discretion to the person in whose district a project is proposed. That provides the opportunity for an unscrupulous council member to do favors for friends and campaign contributors whether it's good policy or not. Mr. Marks has shown himself to be a serious and fair councilman with a strong interest in balancing the interests of various constituencies. Unfortunately, the history of Baltimore County suggests that is not inevitably the case.
Building isn't going to stop while the county conducts this process, and Mr. Marks says he will continue to pursue Towson-specific development legislation — for example, he has a bill in the works to make sure that the county's requirements that developers provide open space actually result in open space being created in Towson rather than somewhere else or not at all. But the timing of the effort is good, coming as it is at the same time as another study Mr. Marks initiated of the idea of creating a circulator bus in the Towson area. Such a service may seem like a tough sell at a time when the state and local governments are grappling with budget shortfalls, but if it is created in support of a plan to allow denser, less auto- (and parking-) dependent development, it's easy to see how it could pay for itself through the increased property tax revenues it would make possible.
Mr. Kamenetz has been supportive of the vision for a new, more urban Towson, but a spokesman says he's reserving judgment until he sees what the planning board comes up with. Indeed, the devil will be in the details in terms of what will be allowed and what avenues will be available for public input on any particular project. But the idea is the right one. Towson is and should be different from the rest of Baltimore County, and it ought to be treated that way.