What could bring urbanologist Bill Struever, educator Fred Lazarus IV, environmentalist Leanna Frick, museum director Matthew Nawn and elected officials Zachary Blanchard and Jermaine Jones together on a Tuesday night in Remington?
They were among nearly 100 Baltimoreans who gathered at R House on Remington Avenue to talk about ideas for transforming the Lower Jones Falls Valley into Baltimore’s next major civic amenity.
The gathering was the first in a series of community meetings that Seawall Development is organizing to formulate a plan for turning a relatively underused stretch of Falls Road between Maryland and Union avenues into a linear park that can benefit residents from all over the city.
It drew a wide of range of participants with various connections to the Jones Falls Valley, including nature lovers, environmentalists, cyclists, historians, educators, planners, developers, elected officials and people who live or work nearby.
The impetus for the two-hour meeting was that Seawall recently negotiated a contract to purchase about four acres along the corridor – the Potts and Callahan construction equipment storage yards at 2701 and 2801 Falls Road – to supplement properties it owns nearby in Remington.
The land at 2801 Falls Road is where city officials last year proposed to move the Sisson Street bulk trash drop-off facility. City leaders backed off that plan after it drew strong opposition from residents who said the land is in a flood plain and that putting a trash transfer station there would be counter to other initiatives already in the works for the area. That’s how it became available for Seawall to purchase.
Instead of formulating his own plan and presenting it to the community, Seawall partner and co-founder Thibault Manekin said he wanted to work with area stakeholders to come up with a shared vision showing how the Potts and Callahan parcels can best be used.
Company officials pledge that the land won’t be used as a bulk trash drop-off center. Possibilities include a “world-class park” and mixed-use development that would help connect the Remington neighborhood, where Seawall is active, to the Jones Falls waterway.
“These sites represent a rare opportunity to rethink how this critical corridor connects the neighborhood of Remington to the Jones Falls River and the broader valley,” the company said. “Rather than advancing a predetermined plan, Seawall will initiate a community-led visioning process to explore what this stretch of Baltimore can become, together.”
Manekin said the first meeting would largely be a listening session where various community experts and leaders could present plans that are already underway for different parts of the Falls Road corridor and Jones Falls Valley. At the end, the session was opened up to anyone who wanted to comment.
“What if we dreamt bigger together about the future of the Jones Falls and its connection to Remington?” the company asked in announcing the meeting. “What could this part of the city become if we thought about it collectively?”
Remington on the River
Manekin, who served as moderator for the meeting, said he doesn’t have a firm deadline by which Seawall has to settle on the Potts and Callahan parcels, and he declined to disclose a purchase price. He said the sale does not include a Potts and Callahan building on the even side of the 2800 block of Falls Road, close to the waterway.
Manekin told the audience that Seawall is creating a website that will be a clearinghouse of ideas and updates about developing a community-backed vision for the Jones Falls Valley. As of Thursday, the main page says it’s “under construction.”
The panel of experts included: Matt Hugel, Director of Community Development and External Relations at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA); Samantha Horn, Secretary of the Greater Remington Improvement Association; Sandra Sparks, President of the Friends of the Jones Falls; Matthew Nawn, Executive Director of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum Inc.; Leanna Frick, Senior Director of Advancement for Blue Water Baltimore; and Lee Davis, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of MICA’s Center for Creative Impact.
Each speaker talked for 10 minutes about his or her organization and its connections to the Jones Falls Valley. Nawn spoke about plans for expanding the streetcar museum, based at 1901 Falls Road. “We’re not going anywhere.” Horn talked about GRIA’s planning efforts for Remington. Davis talked about ways that MICA has made the Jones Falls part of the curriculum for a college of art and design.
Frick thanked Manekin for including Blue Water Baltimore in the discussion and thinking about the environment as Seawall formulates its plans. Sparks summarized the work her organization has done to promote and protect the Jones Falls and develop plans to guide revitalization all along the Jones Falls Valley.
Manekin said ‘it’s really important to us that we ground this [visioning effort] in the work that has already taken place so we understand the starting point that we’re all beginning from.”
Questions and comments
When the meeting was opened up to questions and comments from the audience, speakers expressed a range of ideas for the corridor.
There was a strong consensus that the land along Falls Road should be rezoned to preclude industrial uses in the future.
One area of disagreement was the extent to which people believed that the corridor should have private development.
David Tufaro of Terra Nova Ventures, the development company that has converted historic mill buildings in the valley to apartments and commercial space, told the audience that he tried to acquire the Potts and Callahan properties before Seawall got them under contract.
Tufaro has been a strong supporter of efforts by the Roland Park Community Foundation to buy 20 acres from the Baltimore Country Club and turn that land into a public green space called Hillside Park. The park officially opened to the public last fall, across Falls Road from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School.
Tufaro said on Tuesday that he believes the Potts and Callahan properties shouldn’t be used for commercial development. He said he would like to see it become public parkland.
“I’m not sure why we need more development in that location,” he said. “It’s a mystery to me, and I think that’s one of the discussions everybody should have about it.”
Others said they would support some degree of commercial development, as a way of drawing people. One audience member suggested an amphitheater for concerts, with the sloping hillside as a natural backdrop.
Remington resident Bill Cunningham said the community needs more residents to help support small businesses in the area. “We need more population in order to keep this fabulous growth that has occurred here.”
“Yes, this should be a predominantly incredible, lush, green, water-oasis space, but I don’t think we should have nothing else going on there,” said Blanchard, a Baltimore City Council member.
Other audience members suggested uncovering portions of the Jones Falls waterway that have been covered over in the past.
Struever described how Providence, Rhode Island uncovered a river that ran through that city and said the reopened waterway is now a popular attraction.
“Boldness has a magic to it,” he said. “I’m glad you’re thinking big and bold.”
Before the meeting was opened up for audience comments, Manekin asked each panelist what his or her goal is for the planning effort, what success would mean for them.
Hugel said he wants the corridor to become “the citywide asset that we all know it can be,” in part by de-emphasizing vehicular traffic. “Cars have the entire city,” he said. “Prioritize this road for humans.”
Hugel said he believes the Jones Falls can become a “second waterfront” for the city, after the Inner Harbor.
“If we think about the Inner Harbor as the city’s first waterfront, it wasn’t always what it is today. It took a long time and a lot of coordinated effort… to turn it into a place where people actually want to be. I think the Jones Falls is at a very similar moment right now.”
Ten years from now, he said, “I want people to talk about the Jones Falls in the same way that they talk about the Inner Harbor, that it’s one of the defining public spaces of Baltimore.”
The next meeting will be held on May 4, time and place to be announced.
“We are on the one-yard line,” Manekin said. “At Seawall, we’re really clear that we want to make sure that we’re not over-promising and under-delivering. This is the first step in hopefully lots of these meetings…We’re really excited about starting the conversation.”
