Every 10 years, the Baltimore County Planning Board conducts an in-depth review of Baltimore County’s needs in an effort to proactively address those needs in upcoming years. This is compiled in a document called the Master Plan, which serves as an active resource for the following decade as projects are created and prioritized.
As part of the most recent Baltimore County Master Plan (2030), a series of small area plans were scheduled in order to take the broad needs and customize them to a specific area of Baltimore County. The systematic development of small area community plans allows the Department of Planning to identify specific, place-based strategies for advancing and refining the goals of Master Plan 2030 while supporting the future land use and development trajectory of Baltimore County’s individual communities.
The first of these was the small area plan for Area 11, which encompasses White Marsh, Middle River, Bowleys Quarters, Essex and Rossville. These areas are experiencing shifting economic dynamics along with redevelopment concerns. Throughout the 10-month process, the Planning Board met with community members, leaders and organizations in order to identify four core areas of improvement and create initiatives and priorities:…