Walk through Towson Town Center today and you can feel it.
It's not so much hopelessness as it is uncertainty.
Retail is changing. Anchor stores have disappeared across America. Online shopping has permanently altered consumer behavior. Vacancy rates rise, tenants leave, and once-thriving malls can decline with astonishing speed.
Towson Town Center is still one of Baltimore County's greatest assets. I want it to succeed.
But ignoring the warning signs isn't a strategy.
An absentee landlord. Growing concerns about public safety. Perceptions - fair or unfair - that people no longer feel comfortable visiting. National retail trends that continue to reshape shopping malls everywhere.
These are reasons to start planning. Not reasons to panic.
Here's the question I don't hear anyone asking:
What is Baltimore County's plan if Towson Town Center someday changes hands or undergoes a major redevelopment?
As far as I can tell, there isn't one.And that's exactly the problem.
Too often, Baltimore County follows the same script.
- A major property slowly declines.
- Government watches.
- The community grows frustrated.
- Years pass.
- Then, eventually, a well-connected developer arrives with a proposal - and a checkbook.
- Suddenly, the local councilmember swoops in to "save the day," ribbon is cut, campaign contributions flow, and the public is told to be grateful that someone finally had a vision.
What if we flipped that model on its head? What if the community created the vision first?
As County Executive, I will immediately establish a Towson Town Center Revitalization Work Group.
Its mission won't be to negotiate with a developer or approve a specific project.
Its mission will be to ask a much more important question:
What should this property become if Baltimore County is given a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine it?
We'll bring together residents, business owners, urban planners, architects, transportation experts, Towson University, community organizations, public safety leaders, property owners, and anyone else with a stake in Towson's future.
We'll ask hard questions.
- How do people use public space today?
- What kind of housing, if any, belongs there?
- How do we create walkable streets instead of isolated parking lots?
- How do we attract employers instead of simply more chain stores?
- How do we better connect the mall to Downtown Towson, Towson University, neighborhoods, and public transit?
- How do we create public gathering spaces that people actually want to use? Spaces that reflect how people choose to safely gather these days?
Most importantly, we'll produce something Baltimore County almost never has:
A community-driven vision that is ready before the property is.
If the day comes when Towson Town Center is redeveloped - and many believe that day will eventually come, probably sooner than later - Baltimore County shouldn't be starting from scratch. We should already know what we want.
That puts the community in the driver's seat instead of scrambling to react to whatever proposal happens to arrive first.
For too long, planning in Baltimore County has too often been developer-driven.
I believe it should be community-driven.
That's one of the biggest differences between an insider and an outsider. The insiders wait for developers to bring the vision.
I think government should help the community create one first.
Towson deserves that.
Baltimore County deserves that.
And if I'm elected, that's exactly what we'll do.
But first, I need your help.
Maryland law requires me to collect nearly 6,000 petition signatures just to earn a place on the ballot. Signing my petition is not a vote for me. It simply gives Baltimore County voters another choice this November.
If you're ready to break free from the developer-driven, councilmember-approved cycle that has shaped too much of our county's growth, please sign my petition.
The future of Towson shouldn't be written in a developer's boardroom.
It should be written by the people who call Towson home.
