Baltimore County finally approves 2030 Master Plan after contention with administration

The Baltimore County Council approved on Tuesday the 2030 Master Plan after a four-year delay and months of intense discussion between the council and county officials.

The 2030 Master Plan is a charter-mandated document that strategizes where development in Baltimore County should occur in ten-year cycles. Its passage has become a point of contention between the council and administration after planning staff informed the council last month they would not help council staff amend the plan.

The council approved the plan 6-1.

Members also added amendments like requiring the plan to be in a printed format; creating new “institutional” nodes to emphasize areas like Spring Grove Hospital Center and University of Maryland Baltimore County for redevelopment; adding clarifying language about growth, environmental and historic preservation goals and adequate public facilities capacity; and language allowing the plan to be amended only with council approval and to remove mobility “nodes” near the Lutherville light station.

Councilman Todd Crandell, a Dundalk Republican, cast the dissenting vote.

The vote came hours after Council Chair Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat, said he had reached an agreement with county executive Johnny Olszewski for the council to draft new legislation allowing members to create new zoning districts in exchange for Olszewski pulling a controversial related bill.

That bill, which Olszewski proposed last month, would have allowed some mixed-use developments; which combine office space, retail and housing; in some areas without council approval, drawing criticism from Crandell and Republican councilman Wade Kach who said it would undercut the council’s land-use authority.

Baltimore County, like much of Maryland, faces a dearth of housing and a shrinking amount of development-friendly land. It is also under a federal consent decree to produce 1,000 affordable housing units by 2027.

Crandell sparred with Patoka during Tuesday’s meeting, accusing the chair of “misleading” him by encouraging council members to vote to delay taking action on Olszewski’s until it could be withdrawn at the same time the council introduced new legislation, rather than withdrawing Olszewski’s bill immediately.

“Either we extend the bill that is complete dog, that was dead on arrival,” Crandell said. “Or we extend the conversation that so many people throughout Baltimore County, including your own constituents, cannot stand and are completely against.”

In response, Patoka said Crandell mischaracterized their conversation, and the council needed to move on from “circular” discussions to tackle the county’s housing shortage and other pressing matters.

“I asked you to be a little bit more thoughtful in your review of the Master Plan as it relates to your district,” Patoka said to Crandell. “And the reason I asked you to be more thoughtful was because, I thought, perhaps a broad brush approach to an important entity of our growth for the next six and a half years would warrant more thought and a careful approach.”

“Are you telling me that I’m not thoughtful in my approach and representation of my own constituency?” Crandell said.

Councilman Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, said his office had received 50-60 emails a day since Olszewski proposed his bill.

“It’s gotten a lot of negativity,” he said.

Klaus Philippsen, a county resident and architect, said Olszewski’s failed bill would be a loss for the county.

“We are lacking quality walkable, attractive mixed use communities that other jurisdictions have and that people want to see. We continue to have a glut of underperforming low quality commercial corridors,” he said via email. “As a consequence, middle class people are not only not coming to Baltimore County, they are actively moving out. This hurts the county’s tax base, its workforce and its school performance in the same way as this type of out-migration has hurt [Baltimore City] for decades.”

The county initially delayed drafting the 2030 Master Plan due to the pandemic. Olszewski’s administration presented to the planning board a draft last year, which then passed to the council for approval last June.

The council delayed voting until this month, first due to concerns about how accessible the draft’s new interactive “storybook” format was, and because there weren’t any copies in public libraries.

Council members took issue with the county’s proposal to include “node” areas that would designate denser county areas for redevelopment by repurposing decaying malls and shopping center for new uses, like housing.

Some of those areas would include Security Square Mall in Woodlawn; Liberty Road in Randallstown; and White Marsh Mall.