And a Joint Briefing with the Sustainability Commission
On February 25, Planning staff presented recommendations for the six-year Capital Improvement Program and the upcoming fiscal year 2022 capital budget. Reports with these recommendations are now available on our website. On March 11th, the Planning Commission voted in favor of these recommendations. The next step in the CIP process will be the Board of Finance vote, for which the meeting date is yet to be determined. Watch this page to find out about future meetings for the ongoing CIP process.
Also at the March 11th meeting, the Sustainability Commission and Planning Commission hosted a joint briefing on the future of the Less Waste Better Baltimore Plan. During this briefing Department of Public Works staff shared that, through the plan, it could be possible for the city to reach a waste diversion rate of at least 83% by the year 2040. DPW hopes to achieve this through various initiatives and efforts aimed at increasing recycling rates in Baltimore.
Please find the agenda and minutes from the March 11th commission meeting linked on this page.
For any questions that you have on the process, priorities, or anything capital budget-related, you can email kristen.ahearn@baltimorecity.gov
Over the past year, many local and national experts in the fields of affordable housing, family homelessness, education, and community schools developed a Baltimore-specific model for how affordable housing could be used as a lever to improve educational outcomes for elementary-aged children. SCHORE (School-Centered Housing Response Model) proposes that early intervention and ongoing support through an intentional partnership among the school, housing organizations, Baltimore City Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and direct support organizations will improve children’s educational outcomes as well as life outcomes for the participating families.
How will this work? Baltimore City DHCD will partner with affordable housing providers to facilitate the rehabilitation and maintenance of properties near neighborhood schools, and Baltimore City Schools will identify the families of students in need of housing support. The partners intend to implement a pilot with three schools by the end of 2021. The schools, selected through a rigorous process described in the white paper, are Mary E. Rodman Elementary School, Cecil Elementary School, and Calvin M. Rodwell Elementary/Middle School.
This work was made possible by a grant from Fannie Mae to UPD Consulting to work in collaboration with Baltimore Housing and Community Development.To lead this work UPD Consulting was contracted by Fannie Mae to work with Baltimore City DHCD. Read the press release and download the white paper to learn more about how this collective effort employs the strengths of each of the partners.
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Public Comment Period for Howard Street Tunnel Environmental Assessment
The United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration has completed the Howard Street Tunnel (HST) Project's Environmental Assessment in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Transportation and Maryland Port Administration. The assessment is available for public review and comment through March 30, 2021. The HST Project consists of capital improvements to CSX's rail line to allow double-stack trains (trains carrying shipping containers stacked on top of each other) to travel to and from the Port of Baltimore. The EA was conducted in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
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The Racheal Wilson Memorial Park at 145 S. Calverton Road (a Baltimore Green Network pilot project), reached an important milestone this month. Our partner, the Baltimore Dept. of Recreation and Parks posted a sign indicating that the playground will be installed soon! Firefighter Racheal Wilson, who was the first female firefighter to die in the line of duty in Maryland, love playgrounds and would take her own children as well as foster children to different playgrounds to explore and enjoy. The residents of Boyd-Booth along with the Wilson family designed the park and have been working for the last 13 years to get the playground built. The playground is being funded by Project Open Space funding. The playground will have a firefighter theme.
Zoning Code Updates Continue
The Planning Department continues to work on updates to the Zoning Code. Our goal is to make sure the code is updated to changes in the City and that it works as intended. The changes fall into those two categories generally. These updates include the signage sections and parking sections as well as general updates and corrections, most of which were introduced to the City Council last year as City Council Bill # 20-0601. We held two public meetings to discuss the proposed changes on March 2, 2021. The presentation of those meetings is here.
If you have questions or concerns, please email laurie.feinberg@baltimorecity.gov.
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