On July 13, Remington-based developer Seawall hosted another evening follow-up meeting with a self-guided walk around the Potts & Callahan combined sites on Falls Rd. Some 110 attended; double earlier turnouts.
Seawall co-founder Thibault Manekin’s opening remarks included asking attendees to introduce themselves to someone new and share why they’d come. He said he wanted accountability from the community as the project moves forward. Touring the properties ensued.
Reconvened, Manekin addressed the project’s economics, acknowledging the funding model won’t become apparent until a plan is set. But he said he wants the community to dictate the Falls Rd. site’s economics, apparently meaning its commercial and residential property preferences.
He then asked for audience comments. Several favored scaled re-development of the current industrial uses, suggesting new retail, residential and office occupancy running from Sisson St. in Remington downhill to Falls Rd. Others talked “greening” – calling for robust “de-pave” and stormwater management/green infrastructure programs, a linear park, and/or “daylighting” the Stony Run, a tributary which flows beneath the site into the stream. These would improve natural habitat health in the lower Jones Falls where most seemed to want some amount of new green space.
“Taller, narrower development over wide footprints” along the rock face between Sisson St. and Falls Rd. and on its thickly tree-shaded hillcrest was described by one. In Manekin’s words, the “big push” for linear parks had him worrying about effects of the non-income-producing uses being asked for.
Baltimore City Councilman Jermaine Jones was one of the last to speak: “I think we’re going to have something amazing,” adding, “What got us here is the fact that people thought that no one cared about this space ’til the community started talking.”
Manekin indicated the next meeting will include some design concepts.
-Taylor Deese, M.S. Candidate, Geography and Environmental Planning, Towson University, (tdeeseart@gmail.com)
Editor note: Linked here is Deese’s report on the May 4 Seawall meeting. And here, the initial 3/24 meeting.
Friends of The Jones Falls 