Solve our Housing Crisis & Revitalize Our Communities
Making Housing Affordable and Revitalizing Communities
The below is a summary of Nick’s plan to solve the housing crisis and revitalize communities. You can read Nick’s full plan – The Dream and Deliver Framework here. It is the most comprehensive plan for housing in the County’s history.
Check out his One County Initiative to see his vision for your community here.
Nick’s vision to make Baltimore County more affordable, inclusive and modern, for everybody, starts with housing.
Baltimore County has something for everybody—from 200 miles of tidal shoreline and hiking trails to a global logistics hub and leading colleges and universities. And it used to be that families from all walks of life could come and start a life here and help write the next chapter of Baltimore County’s story. However, that promise is slipping away.
Too many families are being squeezed by rising costs, low wages and a housing crisis that’s pushing dreams out of reach and forcing hard choices every single day.
Today, one third of Marylanders spend over a third of their income on housing—or are “cost burdened.” For renters, over half of them are cost burdened, with the average age to buy your first home at 40. This ranks us 43rd in the country for housing affordability.
But it’s not just those who are looking for homes that suffer. It’s those who are happy with their homes too. Just last year, we saw property tax assessments jump by 25% in Baltimore County. This isn’t sustainable and will push out neighbors on fixed incomes.
Our housing challenges are the consequence of a political culture that clings to outdated systems. From “councilmanic courtesy” to our “APFO” law, these rules have fractured our ability to plan as One County and forced families to struggle.
Under the status we have seen:
- Population decline for the first time in a century.
- Rents up 36% in a decade.
- Home prices up 48%.
- Housing inventory down 57% in just three years.
- Only 679 new units approved in 2023—less than a third of what’s needed to meet demand.
- 6 years to build a new home and 15 years to build a new high school.
Families are stretched thin. College students graduate and move away. Public servants—nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters—can’t afford to live in the communities they serve, lowering morale. Seniors can’t live close to their grandkids or age in the communities they’ve built.
This is a crisis. We cannot afford more of the same.
Nick’s One County Housing Reform Plan– The “One County” Initiative
We have the opportunity to deliver real reform to County government—to make it smarter, more modern and more transparent. We can turn this moment of crisis into a movement for change and unlock investment all throughout our County. We can finally solve our housing crisis while revitalizing communities from every zip code. Nick has a vision and has laid out a pathway to vibrancy and prosperity for every region of the county. Read about your area here.
Nick’s plan is based on a fundamental truth: We are “One County,” more than the sum of our parts, be it the Southwest, North County or the East Side. And we need to act like it.
We have everything we need to accomplish a better future for Baltimore County together.
Change the Culture of County
On day one of his Administration, Nick will bring action that declares “Councilmanic Courtesy” is unconstitutional.
This practice allows each councilmember to control everything that happens in their district, like a fiefdom chief even when the Planning Department or the Planning Board makes a different recommendation
Create Radical Transparency with HousingStat
- A comprehensive assessment of housing needs that tracks housing demand, housing costs and housing types.
- HousingStat will set clear housing targets and timeframes for the delivery of new units.
- It will reveal the status of all projects, and their approvals and waivers, through an “easy-to-use” clickable map of the County
- Force collaboration across departments and with the public, improve decision-making and measure results
Make Decisions Using a Master Plan
- We will work with state lawmakers to close state loopholes so local governments are held to making land use decisions in accordance with their 10-year master plans.
- We will ensure that the County is working with each community to prepare “small area plans” that reflect the specific needs of individual communities which will feed up to the Master Plan.
Make It Easier to Deliver Mixed-Use Projects
Most other jurisdictions understand that people want to be able to live, work, play and learn all in the same place. This is what Nick envisions for places like Security Square Mall, Pikesville, Liberty Road, Lutherville Station, Eastern Boulevard, White Marsh, East Point Mall and so on.
We will:
- Introduce legislation to adopt a true mixed-use zoning designation like Idaho and other states that will unlock investments in mixed uses.
- Propose that up to 30% of all new tax revenue generated from mixed-use projects will be used only for the community in which the project is located.
Prioritize Post-World War II Communities & Build $200K Starter Homes
Baltimore County has many communities dating back to World War II like Baltimore Highlands, Lansdowne, Dundalk and Essex, among others. These offer some of the most affordable homes in the County, but they desperately need reinvestment.
We will:
- Assemble a “cohort” of stakeholders like “The Baltimore Housing Innovation Cohort” in Baltimore City, which includes community developers, builders and public health-focused groups and concentrates on property acquisition, rehabilitation and affordable housing development.
- Establish a countywide redevelopment authority that will leverage a fully funded County’s Housing Opportunities Fund so that they are able to acquire blighted properties that are available because of foreclosures and tax sales, clear back liens, assemble development-worthy parcels and sell the parcels as a package.
- If we pair these efforts with pre-approved housing designs and pre-fabricated homes, we can deliver planned communities that offer $200,000 starter homes to working families.
- Reinvigorate the plans created by County Executive Jim Smith under his Renaissance initiative for Randallstown (town center), Dundalk (marina district with amateur sports center) Essex (waterfront destination) and Towson (walkability master plan).
System Improvement: Rebuild the Permitting Process
We must ensure that every department from Permits, Approvals and Inspections to Environmental Protection and Sustainability, to Public Works are all fully engaged and working collaboratively to make prompt, actionable decisions.
To get there we will:
- Conduct a complete process audit of zoning and land use laws, regulations and processes to simplify them, eliminate redundancy and increase speed; land use regulations have not been updated since the 1970s.
- Overhaul the system
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- Rebuild permitting from the ground up, including fixing or replacing its primary software called CityWorks
- Utilize audit and artificial intelligence to break down silos among development departments; this includes forcing Phase I Review departments to coordinate before requesting changes to development plans
- Establish a “concierge/no-wrong-door” initiative to walk users through the process
- Implement real shot clocks (like Montgomery and Howard Counties) to cut review times in half, including subdivision applications, preliminary plans and site plans, and building permits
- Create a qualified (fast-track) process for “needed projects” identified by HousingStat such as mixed-income projects close to transit
- Create Major Projects Coordination Committee (akin to Bmore FAST in the City)
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- Complete Legal reforms
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- Adopt pre-approved standardized housing plans to speed up permitting
- Implement best practices for prefabricated homes and accessory dwelling units
- Codify early vesting for entitlements
- Support third-party reviews by licensed engineers
- Allow use of surety bonds in place of performance bonds (no other Central Maryland county requires this)
- Reduce parking requirements (use app that allows drivers to reserve spots in advance and driverless cars)
- Reduce hearing requirements for by-right projects
- Reform standing laws for who can challenge administrative approvals
- Study delegation of certain Council approvals to Planning Board (like Montgomery County)
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- Incentivize more projects
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- Design tiered program for tax abatements (both TIFs and community revitalization districts) to promote transparency and trust
- Establish reasonable density bonuses
- Use local revenue bonds for enhancements (revenue generated by the project would be used to pay back debt)
- Advocate for additional funding for state programs like the DHCD Community Legacy Program (Sustainable Communities)
- Leverage federal programs like Section 108 financing for low-cost, long-term financing for economic and community development projects (the County does not use this, but others do)
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- Build Community Trust
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- Reemphasize code enforcement to create/restore a sense of place (implement recommendations by Code Enforcement Improvement Work Group report)
- Expand “community sweeps,” whereby a team of inspectors sweeps through communities all at once
- Create a “sign czar” within the Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections to meaningfully and consistently address illegal signs
Overturn the County Council’s Housing Ban
While APFO laws can be used as a tool to guide smart growth, the Council’s amendments turned ours into a weapon against growth.
We will overturn the APFO championed by Councilman Patoka and clear the way for new housing initiatives and school infrastructure projects so that our communities and BCPS are supported.
Prioritize Community Development Organizations
Baltimore County has a number of community development organizations (“CDOs”) throughout the County. CDOs are community-led nonprofits that develop strategic plans for their areas and then apply for and distribute grant funding for revitalization projects to implement that plan. CDOs are the tip of the spear when it comes to building trust and revitalizing communities.
We will:
- Direct significant funding to these CDOs and support for their efforts to obtain additional grants from other funders.
- Establish a formal CDO support network to ensure collaboration across and among CDOs.
- Stand up new CDOs, while considering the role to be played by interfaith organizations (using as references BUILD in Baltimore City and the Enterprise Community Foundation’s Faith-Based Development Initiative).
Fix Impact Fees
The County government enacted “impact fees” in 2019, the council continues to undermine the value of these fees by approving exemptions and passing legislation in 2024 that did nothing to address that loophole.
We will veto any efforts by the council to provide unearned exemptions from developers and work to restore common sense in the collection of these fees.
Right now, it’s about who you know—and how well you understand the County’s byzantine web of laws, regulations and rules.
When we implement our One County initiative, this will change. It’ll be about the merit of your idea and the value you’ll add to our County writ large.
Local governments must hunt for smart growth | GUEST COMMENTARY
We must dispel the myth that local governments should be passive actors in development projects, Nick Stewart and Tom Coale write.