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Business & Developmentby Ed Gunts3:15 pmFeb 2, 20160

Community groups clash over redevelopment plans for Northwood Plaza

Split decision: Two groups launch online petition drive to show support for housing Morgan State students, but a third group opposes the plan

Above: What to do with aging Northwood Plaza is The subject of a dispute that is dividing a Northeast community: aging Northwood Plaza. (Photo by Ed Gunts)

A $50 million plan to redevelop Northwood Plaza in Northeast Baltimore has drawn sharply different reactions from its neighbors, with three community groups split over the current configuration of the project.

Proponents say the plan is in danger of being “killed” unless residents show strong support for it and win the backing of a key elected official.

Morgan State University owns land just east of the shopping center – the former Hecht Company department store – and is creating a new “west campus” there.

At issue is whether to allow 350 MSU students to live on part of the redeveloped property, to be called Northwood Commons.

The developer contends that student housing is necessary to make the project economically viable.

Two neighborhood associations say they have no problems with  the plan. A third community group, however, doesn’t welcome student housing.

The dispute has become so contentious that the Original Northwood Association and the New Northwood Community Association, two of the three communities bordering Northwood Plaza, have launched an online petition drive and are seeking signatures from at least 5,000 people to show backing for the proposed development.

The signature drive went live on ipetitions.com 11 days ago and has been shared more than 150 times on Facebook. It received nearly 600 signatures in its first week.

“A visionary redevelopment of the plaza is in peril without more widespread community support,” the petition reads in part. “This project is in peril because one neighborhood association does not want to allow Morgan State students to live on site, and they have one state senator on their side.”

Opponents Say Plan Has Changed

The petition identifies State Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D., 43rd) as the elected official who does not support the redevelopment plan.

It does not identify the neighborhood group that does not want Morgan State students living on the site. According to Richard Skolasky, president of the Original Northwood Association, the group is the Hillen Road Improvement Association.

A representative for the association could not be reached. At a community meeting last March, members of the association said they welcomed redevelopment of the shopping center, but said they had not been consulted about the student housing.

Several speakers expressed concern that student parties and crime could disrupt the community as well as downgrade property values and discourage future homeowners from moving into the area.

Contacted by phone in her Annapolis office, Conway said she does not oppose the redevelopment of plaza, but is against the student housing component.

She said MSU’s Board of Regents has long had a plan to locate additional student housing in a different location, next to the Morgan View I student housing on Pentridge Road.

Conway believes it should go there. “Student housing was never supposed to go into Northwood shopping center,” she said yesterday. “The Board of Regents does not support it. . . It was never part of a design plan.”

She said the other two neighborhood groups do not live as close to Northwood Plaza as do the residents of the Hillen Road Improvement Association, some of whom live south of Argonne Drive and would be within sight and earshot of the proposed student apartments.

As a result, she said, she believes the Hillen Road Improvement Association residents have the greatest chance of being adversely affected. Conway said she tends to stand up for groups that have the most to lose as a result of a new development, and that is what she is doing in this case.

“I have a tendency to go with the group that’s the most negatively affected,” she explained.

Show of Support

Skolasky, head of the Original Northwood Association, said in an interview that his group and the New Northwood group have written letters and asked to meet with Conway since last fall to discuss the project, but she has not responded to them.

That’s when they decided to start the petition. “We felt we need to be able to demonstrate that this is something that has broad support in the community,” he said.

Any redevelopment of the property most likely would need City Council approval, since the land is currently zoned a “planned unit development” and the new components would need approval as a “major amendment” to the planned unit development. The project also would need design review and construction permits.

Skolasky said the groups plan to present the signatures to Conway and other elected officials to show that the project has widespread support.

A rendering of Northwood Commons in Northeast Baltimore. (MLR Partners and Martin Architectural)

A rendering of Northwood Commons by architects MLR Partners and Martin Architectural.

The land for Northwood Commons is located north of Argonne Drive, between Hillen Road and Loch Raven Boulevard.

The new development would replace the remaining sections of a strip shopping center that has occupied the site for more than six decades.

A gas station on the west side of the property would remain.

Parcels Acquired by MSU

In recent years, the shopping center has become rundown and lost tenants. A low point came when former City Councilman Kenneth Harris was shot and killed outside a jazz club there in 2008.

Several years ago, Morgan State acquired part of the strip center, including the former Hecht’s department store building, and is using it to construct a new “west campus” of academic buildings there.

Buildings now open or under construction by the university represent an investment of more than $150 million, including a $72 million business center that was dedicated in November.

Morgan State’s President, David Wilson, has made no secret that he would like to see Northwood Plaza replaced with a commercial development compatible with what Morgan is building.

In an interview with The Brew last November, he indicated that he supports building housing for Morgan State students as part of the project. At an earlier meeting with the Hillen Road Improvement Association, he also stressed his support of the project.

“Main Street” Environment

Northwood Commons would be developed by a joint venture of MLR Partners of Baltimore and the longtime family owners of the shopping center. Martin Architectural Group of Philadelphia is the designer.

The group plans to construct a “Main Street”-style environment that will attract local and national retailers, including a grocery store, a Barnes and Noble–like university bookstore, restaurants, health services and more.

Morgan student housing would bring economic activity to the revamped plaza as well as make the economics work. Residents, meanwhile, would benefit from an increased university security presence around the site, advocates say.

Skolasky acknowledged that there have been incidents with students holding noisy parties in private houses in the area.

But he asserted that Northwood Commons would help prevent that sort of situation because an on-site manager would be present to keep an eye on any large gatherings and respond to complaints.

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