Spring Break
Initiative may transform city neighborhoods
Issue date: 4/30/09
Last Thursday, City Council met to discuss the Outer Harbor Initiative, a resolution to direct more resources toward improving derelict neighborhoods that lie outside the affluent Inner Harbor region and other areas throughout the city.
The initiative targets Baltimore's some 17,000 abandoned rowhouses and 13,000 vacant lots and seeks to renovate abandoned properties into homes that families can purchase by enforcing housing codes, renovating abandoned buildings and selling them to new owners.
"As you look at the city, there's this ring around the harbor where neighborhoods have thrived, but if you go just outside that ring, there are a number of neighborhoods that have been stymied in development," said Mike Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity.
Financial limitations are likely to prove a major hurdle to the initiative's implementation. William Cole, 11th District city councilman and sponsor of the initiative, estimated that $20 million of investment would be required.
"I can tell you, that money's not sitting out there right now. So, we'd need something to happen. Frankly, this was the start of a conversation about how to do things differently," Cole said.
Mitchell suggested that some of the financing could come from tax reinvestment.
"There are financing mechanisms in other jurisdictions around the country that allow for the increased tax revenue that results when you redevelop an area to help catalyze more development," he said.
According to Andrew Kleine, Baltimore City budget director, while city officials support the spirit of the initiative, the budget will prohibit the city from reinvesting or providing additional income through taxes.
"We estimate that we're already going to forego $175 million in property tax revenue in the next fiscal year from a whole variety of tax credits and other tax breaks, some of which would benefit the kind of development that is being envisioned in the resolution," he said.
The initiative targets Baltimore's some 17,000 abandoned rowhouses and 13,000 vacant lots and seeks to renovate abandoned properties into homes that families can purchase by enforcing housing codes, renovating abandoned buildings and selling them to new owners.
"As you look at the city, there's this ring around the harbor where neighborhoods have thrived, but if you go just outside that ring, there are a number of neighborhoods that have been stymied in development," said Mike Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity.
Financial limitations are likely to prove a major hurdle to the initiative's implementation. William Cole, 11th District city councilman and sponsor of the initiative, estimated that $20 million of investment would be required.
"I can tell you, that money's not sitting out there right now. So, we'd need something to happen. Frankly, this was the start of a conversation about how to do things differently," Cole said.
Mitchell suggested that some of the financing could come from tax reinvestment.
"There are financing mechanisms in other jurisdictions around the country that allow for the increased tax revenue that results when you redevelop an area to help catalyze more development," he said.
According to Andrew Kleine, Baltimore City budget director, while city officials support the spirit of the initiative, the budget will prohibit the city from reinvesting or providing additional income through taxes.
"We estimate that we're already going to forego $175 million in property tax revenue in the next fiscal year from a whole variety of tax credits and other tax breaks, some of which would benefit the kind of development that is being envisioned in the resolution," he said.
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