Old Goucher Community's official position on 25th Street Station

Dear Council President Young:

On behalf of the Old Goucher Community Association and the Old Goucher Business Alliance, I formally ask that you support Councilman Stokes’ request that the proposed changes to the 25th Street Station PUD be considered a Major Amendment.

While most of our discussions have been with our representatives from Old Goucher and Remington (Council members Stokes and Clarke), some of my neighbors have suggested that I give you an overview of our community’s views on the project and our discussions with our Council representatives. I have been appointed by the OGCA as a representative for the 25th Street Station development, and I have spent literally hundreds of hours in the past two months attending community and Planning Deptartment meetings, discussing the project with residents and business owners, compiling and distilling feedback from the community, and relaying information and resident concerns to the Planning Department and Councilman Stokes.

After so much involvement in the project I am confident that the majority of area residents (including Charles Village and Remington) strongly support the need for further review and major changes to the development. We have put the matter to a vote from our membership and have actively solicited opinions from the community on this matter, and the Old Goucher Community Association and the Old Goucher Business Alliance have both weighed in unanimously in support of a Major Amendment resolution.

To give you a sense of how unanimous and representative this position is, in the past two months not a single resident or business owner in Old Goucher has spoken out in favor of the project as currently proposed. While two other neighborhood groups in the area do not wish for changes to the project, it is my understanding that none of them have put the issue to public vote among the membership and residents. There are certainly many in the area who think the project is good enough as-is, or do not care about design issues. But they do not represent a majority of the community; and frankly, those who are uninterested in the design of the project shouldn’t be leading a discussion about the design impacts on the city.

I would like to point you to an Op-Ed I wrote that was published in The Sun today. While I speak in my own words, my editorial voices the overarching concerns I have been hearing from hundreds of my neighbors.

The Old Goucher community has been extremely thoughtful and outspoken on this issue—I have received dozens and dozens of letters as well as critiques of the proposed design revisions. I have included below a number of letters from residents and businesses in Old Goucher and Charles Village that eloquently express the views of those in our neighborhood. These are just a small percentage of the hundreds of letters, notes, and discussions over the past two months that concur with these viewpoints.

Councilman Stokes has been very conscientious on this issue and has clearly taken all community viewpoints into careful consideration. There is certainly a spectrum of views on this issue, but Councilman Stokes’ position quite clearly reflects the majority of his constituents as well as a proper reading of Baltimore City law.

Thank you in advance for your support of Councilman Stokes and the people of our neighborhoods.

Sincerely,

Bruce Willen
Old Goucher Community Association
Old Goucher Business Alliance
2429 Maryland Avenue