The Baltimore County Council is considering a measure that would allow the county to borrow $19 million for projects associated with the Owings Mills Town Center project, which will house a branch of the Community College of Baltimore County and a public library location, two projects that had long been stalled.
The measure was introduced Monday, and the council also expects this month to review contracts submitted by developer David S. Brown Enterprises for both buildings. The 40,000-square-foot library would be the county's largest branch, with a café and wireless hot spots. It and the two-year college, housed in an estimated 60,000-square-foot building, will become part of the larger Metro Center project to serve the community along the Interstate 795 and Reisterstown Road corridors.
The first component of the project, a 2,900-space parking garage, was completed three years ago, but the stagnant economy has delayed any other construction. Councilman Kevin Kamenetz, the Democratic nominee for county executive, said the new projects will "breathe life into a vacant parking lot" and hopefully stimulate economic development in the area, particularly at the struggling Owings Mills Mall, which is coping with numerous shuttered spaces.
If enacted, the bill would take effect Nov. 28.
In other business, the council unanimously accepted the $5,150 gift of a bronze statute for Olympian Park in Towson. County Executive James T. Smith Jr. and his wife, Sandy, donated the sculpture of a young boy and girl holding aloft a globe and officially dedicated it at the park last week.
Smith, who has served the maximum two terms and is not seeking a new office, said last week that he made the gift "to show our gratitude for such a satisfying time in our lives."