by FERN SHEN
It was all set. Baltimore City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway planned to introduce legislation this Monday (April 12) that would allow a $65 million Wal-Mart-based development in Remington.

But early this week, leaders of the neighboring communities of Hampden and Medfield were emailing Conaway and others around town to complain that it wasn’t until later that Monday evening that the developers were making even their first appearance before the Hampden Community Council to brief them on the huge mixed-use project.

“It’s getting back-doored,” complained Richard B. Kaminski, of the Medfield Community Association, speaking to the Brew on Tuesday.

Asked about these objections, the developers first responded that Conaway was right to go ahead with the introduction of the bill, which would, if approved, grant the project “Planned Unit Development” status and allow it to go forward.

“There has been and will continue to be ample opportunity for public comment and input,” developer’s attorney Jon Laria said, in an email to The Brew Tuesday night, “but we think having an actual pending bill to review will help focus comments and questions on its specific provisions.”

By Wednesday morning, something had changed and Conaway sent emails saying that, “at the request of the developer,” she was delaying introduction of the bill to the City Council until the April 19th meeting.

That one-week delay may not sound like much, but it’s just the latest example of the neighborhood tensions and behind-the-scenes maneuvering swirling around the polarizing announcement that Wal-Mart wants to open one of its big-box discount stores in north Baltimore.

Hampden and Medfield flex their muscles

News of the legislation delay was a small victory for Hampden and Medfield, where some community leaders have felt left out of discussions of a project they say will greatly affect them.

“We’re less than a mile away. The impact of this project is easily going to be felt within a three to four mile radius,” said Benn Ray, president of the Hampden Village Merchants’ Association. “All we’ve gotten is hearsay. This is not a development that is just for customers from Remington. It’s going to pull traffic through Hampden.”

Among the concerns of Kaminski and Ray is the scope of the Traffic Impact Study for the so-called 25th Street Station development, which is proposed on the site of the former Anderson Automotive at the intersection of Howard and 25th streets. Ray said he fears the traffic will be “comparable to Hon Fest” and that the traffic study does not include key streets like Keswick Road, which “is going to pull people in from Roland Park and Guilford.”

Both Ray and Kaminski also expressed some doubt that the two main neighborhood groups — the Remington Neighborhood Alliance (RNA) and the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA) – are advocating vigorously enough in talks with the developer and the city.

“It’s happening very fast, to some green organizations,” Kaminski said.

“My sense is, both Remington community organizations are going to accept it and roll over and not be effective in guiding the process,” Ray said. “I have spoken to a number of people and they are not happy with the lack of a position by the associations.”

Remington responds

Joan Floyd, president and founder of the nearly 10-year-old RNA, actually does have a position on the project: she thinks it’s inevitable, not because she loves to shop at Wal-Mart particularly, but because she’s a veteran of neighborhood development battles.

“I have absolutely no doubt that it’s a done deal,” Floyd said, pointing out that the project has already received site plan approval and a green light from UDARP, the city’s Urban Design & Architecture Review Panel. “I cannot imagine a scenario in which the City Council says ‘no’ to this development.”

Floyd said her group is doing a good job on behalf of citizens, pressing the city and the developer on design and traffic issues and answers to such questions as ‘Will the Wal-Mart be a 24-hour store?”

“You are not going to get an organization with a better knowledge base than the RNA,” she said. “We are very well-versed, we know how to read a development plan.”

So why isn’t RNA the group working with the other two most-directly affected communities as they talk to the developer and the city? When the developers and the city formed a working committee, they ended up with the Charles Village Civic Association, the Old Goucher Community Association . . . and GRIA.

Asked to join, she declined, Floyd said. “We will deal directly with the developer. We don’t work for developers, we work for residents.”

Floyd has some notches in her belt when it comes to a fighting off projects she doesn’t like in Remington, including, a couple of years ago, the Paper Moon Diner’s plan to expand into a lounge or fusion restaurant.

One Remington resident said some are “frustrated” that Floyd didn’t want to stop the Wal-Mart, but stopped all these other “less offensive” proposals.

Another Remington Responds

So how do the folks from the three-year-old GRIA feel about the criticism from Hampden and Medfield?

The charges are “nonsense,” one GRIA member said, off the record, noting that they have been working diligently and smoothly with Charles Village and Old Goucher and, “in parallel,” with RNA. “This whole conflict narrative has been dominant, whereas that’s really not what the experience has been like.”

GRIA president Eric Imhoff took the high road, sending the Brew a statement of GRIA’s position on behalf of the Task Force Committee, chaired by Judith Kunst. They’re not as blunt as the RNA’s Floyd, but they basically acknowledge that there’s tremendous momentum behind the projectaand their best move is to listen to the community and help them get the best deal they can get.

“Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible when sharing the community’s concerns. It would be irresponsible of us to disregard all of the comments and suggestions we’ve heard – during four months of meetings, canvassing, flier-ing, emailing, and so on – from many of our fellow neighbors, especially long-time residents whose families have lived here in Remington for many generations.

“We have also been in close contact with City Council members who have a stake in our area, and by meeting with them we learned that the Council remains mostly positive about the overall project and sees it as a potential asset to the city. We want to enact a strategy that has the long-term interest of Remington at mind, and working with the City is a major component of building a strong, effective, and most importantly, sustainable neighborhood group.

Yet another voice for Remington

The 25th Street Station project has spawned yet another Remington group recently, the Greater Fawcett Community Association.

Megan Hamilton, who lives in lower Remington, has organized her neighbors into a separate group because, she said, they have some unique issues due to their location.

“On this 11 and-a-half-acre site, we’re the closes to all the big box stores,” she said. “I am 138 steps from the proposed truck egress for the Lowe’s.”

“We’re looking at a three-deck-parking garage and a ‘garden center’ that is also going to be a loading dock,” she said. “The church is also a concern. We are really interested in preserving it and think that’s important to maintaining some quality of life over here.”

“We look forward to really great relations with the other Remington organizations,” she said.
She describes Greater Fawcett as the 400 block of west 24th, Fawcett and west 23rd streets and the area below West 23rd.

“We want the development team to slow down so we can get caught up,” she said.”We are a bunch of people who expect to see their property values decline significantly. We’re a diverse working class community.” She said she has asked for the group to be included, along with the other area community groups, in meetings with the developer and the city.

Saying no to Wal-Mart in Baltimore

The grassroots opposition to the project, meanwhile, persists. Ray, of Hampden, is continuing to speak out against the big-box complex because he believes it will kill off local independent merchants. His online petition drive “No-Walmart in Remington” continues to rack up signatures. (There were 951 as of today.). Comments like this one, from Cindy Gissendanner, were typical:

“As a homeowner who recently experienced the building of a Walmart across the street from my house, I am hard pressed to think of any positive impact for my community. It is near impossible to make a left turn out of my complex now because of the traffic congestion (not exactly a positive contribution to a greener environment).They had to widen York Road and put in a new traffic light to accomodate the increased traffic. The fact that they now sell some “green” products hardly makes up for the company’s exploitative labor policies and destruction of community businesses that are its hallmarks.”