Baltimore City Task Force on Inclusionary Zoning

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Baltimore City Task Force on Inclusionary Zoning

• Interests and Goals of Task Force Members,
  Participants, and City Officials for Development
  in
• Baltimore City
• April 4, 2006
• Includes additional input from
• March 21 Task Force Session

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The Question What would you like to see in terms
of development in Baltimore City?

• Why This Question?
• Talking about development elicits peoples
  views on market situation, housing needs,
  neighborhood health, public policy.
• Talking about development elicits both optimism
  and concern.
• People are excited that Baltimore City is
  achieving economic progress and that there is
  growing interest outside of Baltimore to move
  into the City.
• There is also great concern that many who already
  call Baltimore home, some for several
  generations, will not have the opportunity to be
  a part of this economic progress.
• A cross-section of public, non-profit and private
  sector leaders are all invested in the
  development of Baltimore City and have a range of
  important ideas as to how they would like to see
  development happen. An inclusionary housing
  policy would need to take into consideration all
  these interests.

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Topic Areas That Are Emerging

• Scale of development
• Kind of communities development should aim to
  create
• Linkage of housing with other factors affecting
  quality of life
• Regional context

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Interests and Goals

• Scale of Development
• In superblighted areas, clear whats there away
  and make available for redevelopment, but make
  sure people who live there now have a chance to
  live there.
• Grow our City (population, incomes, jobs, tax
  base).
• Clear blighted areas out. Make something
  better.
• Large-Scale DevelopmentDifficult to get people
  to move in if they feel they are on an island.
  Communities with houses, shopping and good
  schools. Large scale can be about 200 houses.
• Concern about what large-scale development
  means. We need to encourage developers to do more
  in-fill development.

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Interests and Goals

• Scale of Development
• Clearing land is essential, but have to do it at
  scale.
• City needs to take controlbuy and condemn
  properties.
• Accumulate larger land areas for redevelopment.
• Take neighborhoods that are completely
  distressed and do large scale redevelopment as
  mixed-income communities (built around schools
  and transit lines).
• Major revitalization that would include
  affordablity.
• Who decides what is blighted?
• When talking about large scale redevelopment,
  relocation is a major issue.

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Interests and Goals

• Scale of Development
• Get dedicated funding to really get things
  done change City Charter to create Affordable
  Housing Trust Fund, and incorporate special needs
  (e.g. seniors, disabled). Also include provision
  for renters.
• Think about Affordable Housing as an economic
  development must. Goal should be 50,000
  affordable units for Baltimore in the next
  decade.
• We need to repopulate Baltimore. We have an
  infrastructure for 900K people and only have
  630K.
• Acquire scattered vacant houses on otherwise
  viable blocks. Waive liens and get them
  rehabbed.

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Interests and Goals

• Scale of Development
• Produce hundreds of units at scale out of which
  can have an inclusionary requirement (take into
  account that the suburbs are built on model of
  income segregation).
• Look at every prospective site assemblage over
  10 year time frame with a goal of re-population
  and mixed-income along the way.
• Get it out of a theoretical conversation--Challen
  ge Otis Rolley and Paul Graziano to give us a 10
  year plan to produce x thousands of units in
  Baltimore.
• Large scale development in blighted areas with
  City support behind it.
• Greater Economic Diversity Among all City
  Neighborhoods, particularly neighborhoods south
  of North Ave which are the poorest.

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Interests and Goals

• Scale of Development
• Need more employed residents and job
  opportunities.
• Clear vacant lots away and put a new product
  there.
• Some areas need to be cleared away and
  redeveloped, but with a plan. What was the plan
  in Sandtown Winchester? It didnt connect up with
  other things. Each area that is redeveloped needs
  a concrete plan.
• Lets have a comprehensive plan for blighted
  communities as well as other parts of the City.
• There needs to be a high level of coordination
  among city agencies, non-profits, and
  communities.
• Use the City surplus to create an affordable
  housing trust fund.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Mixed-income Housing Baltimore City doesnt
  aspire to be a modern suburban community.
• The story of Crystals Trumpet Mixed income
  communities provide children the opportunity to
  thrive where concentrated poverty does not.
• They talk about teachers, policemen and
  firefighters, but then forget about the rest of
  us. We need help too. We all want what is best
  for our children, I tell you. Yes Lord, even the
  providers.
• Make sure people who have lived here, both black
  and white, reap the benefits of development.
• Shouldnt Baltimore have a Gold Coast like other
  major US Cities? Vision of mixed-income
  communities, but also a Gold Coast where the
  wealthy live. Get as much as we can out of that.
• People who have lived through crime, drugs and
  murdersthey should benefit from development of
  the City.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• That blue and purple (competitive) neighborhoods
  have housing thats affordable to people of all
  income ranges.
• Encourage balanced re-gentrification.
• Re-gentrification does not connote balance.
• Create good affordable housing in good
  communities.
• Important to look at where there are optimal
  opportunities to have mixed-income housing.
• Affordable work-force and market-rate housing
  together.
• That everyone fits under the tent. Dont want
  little enclaves and gated communities.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Want to see everyone be able to enjoy the
  waterfront without being priced out.
• Create a new paradigm that relates to delivery
  of new affordable housing in areas of
  opportunity.
• Empower the purchase and development of land for
  mixed-income communities.
• Rental conversion to condo help people who have
  lived there be able to stay.
• Find a way to increase the supply of affordable
  housing for middle-income families.
• Do well by doing good. Look for developers who
  are mission driven.
• We need development that takes into account
  community plans that exist.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• See vacant homes rehabbed, with a focus on
  serving senior citizens.
• Senior citizens who sit on their porches are an
  asset to an area. They also keep up their
  houses.
• Why isnt a middle-income product getting built?
  City needs that.
• Create a partnership with colleges to create
  incentives for keeping their college graduates in
  the neighborhood.
• In distressed areas, would like to see more
  rehab rather than knocking down.
• If someone cant live by the water, maybe they
  can live by a park. Its all about how the City
  markets its assets.
• Create housing for those with little or no
  income. Example of kids in foster care. Where do
  they go?

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Create a complement of affordable housing for
  people at all income ranges, the home health aide
  at 20 AMI to the paramedic at 50 AMI, to the
  policeman at 80 AMI.
• Weve got to want more residents with more money
  in their pockets, but do not want to do at
  expense of poor population being shoved off into
  oblivion. If people at the bottom of the scale
  feel like they are being pushed out, they will
  stop the process.
• Mixed-income meaning garden apartments, single
  family homes, townhouses. Provide a variety of
  housing options.
• Upgrade physical conditions of neighborhoods in
  the middle range.
• Achieve a balance of rental and homeownership.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Need affordable, quality rental opportunities.
  Issue of a rental stigma. Federal government
  focuses heavily on homeownership. But many people
  are not ready for it. If quality rental
  opportunities were available, then people
  wouldnt seek homeownership.
• Housing stock that would attract the middle
  class (80-120 AMI).
• The City needs a workforce and theres an
  inventory of folks ready to start secretaries,
  laborers, clerks.
• Maintain character and history of communities.
• The very thing that makes Baltimore
  uniquecharacter-- is what drives the profit for
  developers. Dont lose it.
• Do for the City what the downtown partnership
  did for downtown.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Attractive mixed-income development that serves
  everyones needs.
• Unless focus is on creating top quality
  mixed-income development projects, then the
  project will be a waste of everyones time.
• Dont want affordable units to become studios
  for college students.
• Build on whats there in terms of opportunity.
  Build on strengths in areas where access to
  transportation, parks, etc
• Attract higher to middle income residents and
  ensure affordability there.
• Cast a wider net. How leverage purple areas to
  create opportunities in orange areas.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Goal for development should be a comprehensive
  community of all incomes, low moderate, middle,
  upper.
• Connect community development to urban senior
  living.
• Make city attractive to knowledge based creative
  class to attract such companies. Richard
  Florida-- Cities of the Future will be attractive
  to the creative class (e.g. idea generators,
  companies on the cutting edge of new technology
  information systems).
• More mixed-use development using our strengths
  (e.g. old industrial lofts, low-rent industrial
  buildings that are next to residential areas).
• Both companies and knowledge based workforce
  attracted to cool, funky, urban scene!
• Attract more people paying taxes, without
  increasing demand for services.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Unintended consequence of mixed-use can be
  economic segregationit creates a community of
  just a certain economic profile. This is not
  where real economic prosperity comes for a city
  or community. Mixed-use without mixed income is
  monotonous.
• Want to see a City of mixed-use neighborhoods
  with mixed-income housing, retail and offices.
  Businesses should be uniquely, locally owned. In
  a quintessential City you go to the local butcher
  or florist. Too often organic growth is taken out
  of the experience and you are left with a
  fabricated community.
• Celebrate the public domain and not give it up
  to the car and private ownership. Why do people
  like to live in Cities? Not because they want a
  speedway in their car. Great cities have a little
  bit of grime and grit to it that makes the
  experience authentic and real.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Without mixed-income and real public space you
  lose the whole contextual experience that makes
  urban living so dynamic, spirited, sensory rich,
  Its a vivacious rhythm of city life. A sense of
  community and belonging is what people crave.
• We would set ourselves apart from other cities
  if we did not have segregated zoning codes. We
  need a new game board with a new zoning code.
  Pick up the monopoly board, shake it all out and
  recreate the game.
• Notion of CityDensity and Diversity.
• Need more affordable housing to prevent
  large-scale displacement and forced relocation.
• What about seniors and people who are facing
  foreclosure now? Shouldnt we protect them?

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• We want development in our community for all
  income ranges so that one third of all the
  housing is affordable to residents with incomes
  at or below 22,000 one third for residents with
  incomes between 22,00 and 65,000 and one third
  at market rates.
• Protection for our low-income homeowners,
  particularly elderly owners, who will face
  escalating property taxes which would make their
  current housing unaffordable.
• Protection so that affordable housing can be
  sustained and available for the long-term.
• Need more accessible housing for the disabled.
• Transit oriented developmentits important that
  we invest in public transportation.
• People need to live near a bank, a shopping
  center. There needs to be a retail component.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• The City can serve as a catalyst to produce
  sitesassemble and clean them up.
• Offer mixed-income waterfrontthats a big
  opportunity.
• That the Mayor of Baltimore say his vision is of
  a City with mixed-income communities.
• That we find developers willing to build
  mixed-income communitiesdevelopers who are
  willing to be creative.
• That we look behind assumptions in terms of what
  people see as possible.
• That we incorporate an inter-faith effort in our
  strategy to build mixed-income communities.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Greater mix of homeownership and rental.
• Blue areas Hopefully become more racially
  diverse!
• Design and marketing should be seamlessi.e. no
  discernible difference between affordable and
  market rate.
• We need high-income residents.
• Thin out concentration of poverty.
• Chain of mixed-income communitiesracially and
  economicallywhere Inclusionary Zoning brings
  into being modest amounts of low-income housing.
  

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• The biggest supply of affordable housing we
  currently now have is of
• people who currently own their own homes. Lets
  make sure we dont lose
• them.
• City is divided by North and South and East and
  West. North and South tends to be rich and white.
  East and West is poor and black. We should focus
  on developing specific areas within the City and
  give people there first dibs on what they would
  like to see in their neighborhood.
• We should focus more on the East side and
  develop around a church like McCormack, Baron did
  in one of its projects, which can be a focal
  point for a community. Why not build around
  Coppin State College or the Great Blacks in Wax
  Museum instead of just Johns Hopkins?
• Focus on maintenance and repair, such as a fund
  to help fixed or lower income people keep their
  houses in good condition.

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Interests and Goals

• Kind of Communities Development
• Should Aim to Create
• Mixed use with mixed-income Dont want to see
  malls with cell phones and fancy winged tip
  shoes. Need to meet all peoples needs. Have a
  dollar store next to an Ann Klein, Polo and
  Charlie's Fish NChips. You reach four
  populations that way Blue collar, women upscale,
  men upscale and a store for everyone.
• Type of retail/stores is important Food in
  particular can bring people together across
  cultures. At the Charles Center we only have
  pizza and hot dogs. Theres no Asian, Greek or
  Latin food.
• Rent conversion. To the extent possible, help
  people buy houses they are renting. Put some
  teeth back into the Right of First Refusal.
• If you are doing moderate to large scale
  development, get market in there and at the same
  time dont displace people.

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Interests and Goals

• Linkage of housing with other factors affecting
• quality of life
• I have to move for my childrens sake. My
  husband will have to work two jobs and I will
  have to go to full-time. If you want your child
  to get the best education, you have to make that
  sacrifice.
• Cities cant survive without familiesits the
  families who fight strongly for good schools,
  parks and against crime.
• There are 2,200 kids in Baltimore City that are
  homeless which affects everyones quality of
  life.
• We cant fix schools without changing the mix of
  the school population. This is a research finding
  that has been out there for forty years.
  Neighborhood by neighborhood, school by school
  mosaic.
• We can only build middle class generally if have
  families with children attending Baltimore City
  schools. Need to target major employer
  institutionsHopkins, University of Baltimore,
  Hospital complexes, to collaborate on putting
  together special schools that have enriched
  academic programs. Make sure that people who work
  at these institutions can send their kids to
  these schools.
• Give people in Baltimore City a realistic option
  that centers on jobs.

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Interests and Goals

• Linkage of housing with other factors affecting
• quality of life
• I live in Brookland and the schools are not fit,
  the neighborhood is not clean. I worry about what
  my kids can see and not see, because kids pick up
  everything.
• With regards to affording a home I pray to God
  we dont go bankrupt . Im at a loss. I was going
  to try to find the Mayor and ask what he can do
  for families in Baltimore because we really do
  need help.
• The importance of mixed-income communities
  Were not going to turn around schools with
  close to 81 of children in elementary schools
  who qualify for free and reduced meals.
• The school system drives families out to
  suburbs.
• "Housing costs are outrageous in Baltimore. If
  you have a family, you can't afford to live in
  the City and make less than 75,000. Getting a
  professional to move here is prohibitive. It's
  difficult to come and buy a house, buy a
  propertyWe're frustrated with housing in the
  City.

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Interests and Goals

• Linkage of housing with other factors affecting
• quality of life
• Build in a family self-sufficiency component
  into inclusionary zoning. For example, anyone at
  50 AMI or below who moves into an affordable
  home would have an incentive or requirement to
  participate in a job training program, job
  placement program, receive financial counseling,
  day care support, etc
• Want to see mixed-income housing that has a
  school component.
• Baltimore City should be held accountable for
  allowing these communities to get into the
  condition they are in.
• Look to do development in stable areas that can
  serve as an anchor and from which new development
  can move out.

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Interests and Goals

• Linkage of housing with other factors affecting
• quality of life
• See schools as part of the community.
• Equal access to quality education in competitive
  areas.
• Connect housing with jobs, so people can afford
  to buy or rent or maintain homes.
• Need to address rate of property taxes so its
  more affordable to live in the City.
• If a developer gets to build a tower on the
  water, then should also build something in some
  other place in the City. Its fine if they want
  to build a billion dollar building, but then we
  also want a good school.
• Important to talk to communities about their
  civic obligation of how to be a responsible
  owner/tenant.

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Interests and Goals

• Regional Context
• Send a message to the rest of the region that we
  are committed to an inclusionary society which
  positions Baltimore City to advocate for
  inclusion in surrounding counties.
• Need regional answers as well. All surrounding
  counties need to look at Inclusionary Zoning. By
  helping the City, they are helping themselves.
  The City will be less likely to siphon off
  resources from the State as a result.
• Right now, there is no place for people to go if
  pushed out of the City. Other counties have to
  pay attention to housing their workforce.
• Cant have a 22 poverty rate in Baltimore City.
  Important that Baltimores redevelopment is
  placed in the context of everything else in the
  region.

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Recurring Themes

• Repopulate the City
• Engage in large scale redevelopment
• Create mixed-income, mixed-use communities
• Ensure mixed-income communities include people of
  all income ranges
• Attract and retain middle-income families with
  children
• Ensure affordable housing for both rental and
  homeownership.
• Allow for Gold Coast (high-end luxury
  development) to support tax base.
• Preserve affordable homeownership where it exists
  now