The Red Maple Place affordable housing project, which has survived neighborhood opposition, a hostile Baltimore County Council, and judicial review, is again at risk of being torpedoed by the county, according to the developer.
The battle over the development goes back years. Residents in East Towson, who trace their history back to people who had been enslaved at the nearby Hampton mansion, say the 56-unit apartment building will forever change their community.
Democratic Councilman Mike Ertel, who represents East Towson, said for decades the county has done damage to the neighborhood.
“We put a BGE substation in the middle of this community,” Ertel said. “We’ve tried to run highways through it. We’ve done all kinds of things to East Towson and it just, it’s just got to stop somewhere.”
The Red Maple property currently lies outside of a design review area that was created for historic East Towson. Ertel is proposing that the property be included.
Dana Johnson, the CEO of Homes for America which is developing Red Maple Place, told the county council Tuesday night that that would make the project go belly up.
“The design standards are for single family homes and they have a two story height restriction,” Johnson said. “So this bill, this resolution, if it were to pass would effectively kill the development.”
The plan is for a four story building.
Matt Hill, an attorney for the Baltimore County Branch of the NAACP, called Ertel’s move a meritless attempt to block Red Maple Place.
“I believe again that this is part of the pattern of practice of blocking affordable housing that this council’s undertaken,” Hill said.
Roland Patterson, also with the NAACP, raised the possibility of legal action should the County Council support Ertel’s proposal.
“This isn’t the way we want to work,” Patterson said. “We want to work in a collaborative, congenial manner. We need you to do the same.”
But Ertel pushed back.
“I’m at a loss for why the NAACP doesn’t have any concern for one of our oldest African American communities in the county,” Ertel said.
Ertel likened Red Maple Place to a prison-like building, and that tying it to East Towson’s design review could require the developer to make it nicer.
Council Chairman Izzy Patoka asked why not have an attractive building?
Patoka said, “Do we want, and no disrespect to Glen Burnie, but do we want to be Glen Burnie? Do we want to look like Ritchie Highway?
But Matt Hill, the NAACP attorney, said the current Red Maple Place plan looks just fine.
“It’s been litigated for four plus years,” Hill said. “All of these issues have been raised.”
In March, a three judge panel of the Appellate Court of Maryland gave Red Maple Place the green light. The judges upheld a circuit court ruling in favor of the project.
It would be at the intersection of E. Joppa Road and Fairmount Avenue on the edge of East Towson. The developer said the location is ideal because it’s near public transportation, good schools and jobs.
The 56 apartments also would help Baltimore County meet its legal obligation under an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban development to create 1,000 affordable housing units by 2027.
Republican Councilman Todd Crandell, who is no fan of that HUD agreement, said the county is creating mini cities.
“Where we have school capacity problems, we have infrastructure problems, we have some failing roads, we have some failing bridges that we’re taking care of, and that we’re budgeting for,” Crandell said. “We just went through a budget cycle. So when does it end?”
Affordable housing has been at the center of multiple debates before the County Council this year, including plans for mixed use zones and updating the county’s law designed to control school overcrowding.
Ertel emphasized he is not opposed to affordable housing.
“What I am against is projects that look like industrial factories and prisons,” Ertel said.
The council is slated to take action on Ertel’s proposal on June 3.
County Executive Johnny Olszewski was unavailable for comment Tuesday night on Ertel's resolution.
