The Dream and Deliver Framework

Housing Opportunity & Modernization for Everyone

Nick’s plan to solve the housing crisis and revitalize communities is the most comprehensive plan for housing in the County’s history.  It leaves no one behind. Check out his One County Initiative to see his vision for your community here. 

The Housing Crisis

Our vision to make Baltimore County more affordable, inclusive and modern, for everybody, starts with housing.

Yes, the cost of everything is increasing—groceries, energy, healthcare.  But it’s housing costs that lead the way.  It’s the single biggest reason why life is unaffordable.  Housing has far outpaced inflation and wage growth.

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.  As a result, one in four Marylanders are considering leaving the state.  It gets worse for those aged 18-35.  

The Crisis Comes Home

We are feeling this housing crisis more in Baltimore County than others.  While we need 150,000 new homes statewide right now, 50,000 of those are in the Baltimore region.  Our housing inventory is at half the normal levels.  

But, we’re way behind in creating new homes.  We delivered only 679 new units in 2023 and need 1,700+ units annually to meet demand and address loss (deterioration, demolition and disaster).  In comparison, Montgomery County delivered 2,343 units in 2023.  It’s also taking 6 years on average to build a new home in our County (and 15 years to build a new high school).  And now, a new townhome is selling for $500,000 on average, even as local incomes are falling.

This failure to create enough housing has led to 0.6% economic growth and the County’s first population loss in a century.   

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.  This is the opposite of inclusive.  

On a human level, the consequences of this crisis are real. 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.

The County Council’s Response

But, instead of facing this crisis, the County Council has made it harder to do everything.  

It passed a housing ban in 2024, even though Montgomery County just repealed the very same ban (because it didn’t work and only hurt their county).  It rejected County Executive Johnny Olszewski’s efforts to make it easier to bring mixed-use projects to the County.  And when Olszewski vetoed the County’s special law passed for a specific developer, because this kind of “pay to play” hurts the County, the Council overturned the veto.  

It’s time to break from the past.  It’s time to rethink how we do things.  It’s time for bold ideas.

Nick’s Plan

We’ve got the plan to get there.  You can read about it below.  It’s built from Nick’s real-world experiences and service.  

He co-founded We The People – Baltimore County with the County’s former planning director in order to advocate for housing, smart growth and community revitalization.  Nick serves as a board member of the Southwest Visions Foundation, one of the County’s community development organizations.  And he serves on Maryland Inclusive Housing’s Baltimore County Housing Committee.  

His plan is built from more than 400 conversations that Nick has had throughout the County over the last 18 months.

Like all of Nick’s plans, it’s the most comprehensive and detailed plan of any candidate for County Executive.  

This Isn’t about “Affordable Housing”

But let’s be clear, this is not just about “affordable housing.”  It’s about housing that is more affordable.  Yes, we need to create housing options for the poorest among us, that’s true.  But we need to create housing of all types—less than 1% of new housing is something other than a single family home or large apartment complex. 

And we can do so while preserving our precious open space.  That’s because we have a glut of dead and dying property that’s already been developed.  Think Security Square Mall, Pikesville, Liberty Road, Lutherville Station, Eastern Boulevard, White Marsh, East Point Mall and so on.

The goal is not to build for the sake of building.  It’s to transform grey sprawl into vibrant, inclusive and green towns where people live, work, play and learn, all in the same space.  It’s about restoring the heart, charm and connectivity of main streets so we can slow down and enjoy each other.  It’s about creating community. 

For the first time in County history, housing is a number one issue.  This is a good thing.  It means that instead of “more of the same,” we have the opportunity to deliver real reform to County government—to make it smarter, more modern and more transparent.  It means we can turn this moment of crisis into a movement for change and unlock investment all throughout our County.

But we have to choose it.  The only way is through.  

The Solution – The “One County” Initiative

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 need to plan and invest in a smart, coordinated way.  The goal is not to change the character of the County; it is to make sure that the story of our seniors—who raised families, and built careers and communities, and sacrified—can be written by new generations too.

1. Change the Culture of the County

For too long, Baltimore County has been a place where who you know matters more than the merit of your idea.  We’re going to change that.

It starts by legally challenging the practice known as “councilmanic courtesy.”  This practice allows each councilmember to control everything that happens in their district, like a fiefdom chief.  It doesn’t matter whether the Planning Department or the Planning Board makes a different recommendation—it’s just left to the individual councilmember to make the decision. 

The practice works like this:  Even though all councilmembers are required to vote on all matters, they just follow the one councilmember without thinking about whether their vote is good for the County. This is backroom lawmaking at its worst—trading favors behind closed doors.

On day one of his Administration, Nick will instruct the Office of Law to bring an action for declaratory relief on the grounds that this practice is unconstitutional.  

Nick will also veto, as many times as it takes, any special laws that the Council passes, which benefit just one developer.  Any zoning changes should be made through the normal administrative process. 

 

2. Create HousingStat

Next, we get a handle on where things stand.  We know it’s bad.  But we need to know how bad—because the things that get measured are the things that get done.

Nick will create a new program called HousingStat, which will perform a comprehensive assessment of housing needs and then update it from time to time—tracking housing demand, housing costs and housing types.  

HousingStat will also set clear housing targets and timeframes for the delivery of new units.  It will also reveal the status of all projects, and their approvals and waivers, through an “easy-to-use” clickable map of the County, akin to what Montgomery County does.

Nick will use HousingStat to create radical transparency, force collaboration across departments and with the public, improve decision-making and measure results.  In this way, Nick will create 360 degrees of accountability and hold government agencies responsible for performance.  

 

3. Make Decisions Using a Master Plan

Every 10 years, Baltimore County prepares a “Master Plan” that is supposed to tell us where and how the County will grow, develop and invest for the next 10 years.  It should be the product of a thorough, complete process that engages all corners of the community, so that when it’s time to make decisions, we don’t have to listen to the loudest in the room.  Instead, we can lower temperatures and review whether the decisions follow the Plan—or not.

This doesn’t happen.  

Because of loopholes in state law, local governments like Baltimore County don’t have to make land use decisions that are consistent with their master plans.  This has wreaked havoc on Baltimore County.  Nick will work with state lawmakers to close this loophole.  

Moreover, Nick will ensure that the County is working with each community to prepare “small area plans” that reflect the specific needs of individual communities.  These small area plans then feed up into the overall Master Plan. The vast majority of the County’s small area plans are outdated, with some being 30 years old.

Finally, Nick will ensure that land use decisions are made in the right order.  Small area plans should support the Master Plan, which should control how land is rezoned, which should impact water and sewer master plans.  Right now, rezonings often occur without any connection to the Master Plan.  This is different from most other countries.  It’s time to modernize.

 

4. Make It Easier to Deliver Mixed-Use Projects

Johnny Olszewski introduced legislation that tried to make it easier to bring mixed-use projects to Baltimore County.  The County Council rejected it.  We need to push back.

Most other jurisdictions understand that people want to be able to live, work, play and learn all in the same place.  That is, they want to have mixed-use communities.  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.

But it’s very hard to do.  That’s because you have to win over the local councilmember first, due to councilmanic courtesy.  It’s also because we haven’t had the right tools to actually “mix” zoning designations—residential, retail, commercial and so on.  Nick will introduce legislation to adopt a true mixed-use zoning designation like Idaho and other states that will unlock investments in mixed uses.

And he’ll propose that up to 30% of all new tax revenue generated from mixed-use projects will be set aside and used only for the community in which the project is located.

 

5. 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.  Certain communities, like Baltimore Highlands, were allegedly designed to be temporary.

This will require close collaboration among government, developers and the community to renew the housing stock and create much-needed amenities in areas that are amenity deserts.  But we can do it.

We can 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. 

We must also establish a countywide redevelopment authority.  This authority will be 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.  To do so, it can leverage the strength of the County’s Housing Opportunities Fund, which Nick will fully fund each year.  If we pair this together with pre-approved housing designs and pre-fabricated homes, we can deliver planned communities that offer $200,000 starter homes to working families.

Nick will also facilitate collaboration between key economic assets and the community.  Much like how Baltimore Washington Medical Center partnered with Glen Burnie (another post-WWII community) to provide family-sustaining jobs that attract and retain residents, the County should partner with economic assets (e.g., John Hopkins Bayview and Dundalk, UMBC and Arbutus) to do the same.

Further, given his school board service, Nick knows how valuable the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is for both our schools and their surrounding neighborhoods.  At a time of tight budgets, Nick will focus on a core element of Blueprint to deliver “community schools” in the most challenged areas of the County.  These schools provide critical services to families in order to stabilize communities, reduce transiency and improve performance.  This, in turn, attracts investment in revitalization and amenities like grocery stores.   

Finally, Nick will revisit 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).  These plans were prepared in partnership with the American Institute of Architects Urban Design Assistance Team and are valuable resources. 

 

6. System Improvement: Rebuild the Permitting Process

The area of greatest promise is system improvement.  That’s because we don’t need the County Council for this.  We can tear down and rebuild the way we do business so that it’s out in the sunlight and the best projects rise to the top.  

And we can ensure that the departments involved in the process (from Permits, Approvals and Inspections, to Planning, to Environmental Protection and Sustainability, to Public Works and Transportation) are fully engaged and working collaboratively to make prompt decisions.  Because even if the answer is “no,” this allows the user to go back to the drawing board and decide whether to make changes.

Taken together, we can build a new brand for Baltimore County, one that says we are open to investment in every zip code.  In our County, investors should be able to predict what the process will look like and cost.  And the public should be able to participate in the process without an attorney—and understand why some projects are going forward and others aren’t.

It shouldn’t cost $94,000 in compliance costs just to build a new home (the average).  And it can’t take 6 years to build that new home (also the average).  Under the Stewart Administration, it won’t—together, we’ll move with urgency.  

The steps to get there are these: 

 

7. Overturn the County Council’s Housing Ban

We’ll never be able to restore our reputation and unlock millions of dollars in investment unless we come together to overturn the County Council’s ill-conceived housing ban.

In 2024, led by its then-Chair Izzy Patoka, the County Council fought hard to amend the County’s “Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance” or “APFO.”  They even had to overturn County Executive Olszewski’s veto against the law to do so.

While APFO laws can be used as a tool to guide smart growth, the Council’s amendments turned ours into a weapon against growth.  It’s now impossible to build new homes in any areas that experience school overcrowding.  

While this might sound good at first, smart policy doesn’t come from what sounds good—it comes from what actually works after thorough study, analysis and comparison.  All the studies show that this type of housing ban doesn’t prevent schools from being overcrowded.  Instead, they simply discourage new investment.  

That’s why the Montgomery County Council unanimously overturned the very same type of ban just four years prior, in 2020.  Instead, Montgomery County authorized developers to build homes in crowded districts if they paid additional fees.  As Montgomery County Councilmember Andrew Friedson said at the time, “[t]he moratorium deprived the County of needed resources to invest in schools, pitted existing residents against new residents and exacerbated our longstanding housing crisis.”

That’s why, when Baltimore County passed its housing ban, the state’s Senate President Bill Ferguson responded with these words:  “This is the unfortunate reality that happens when a County Council chooses politics over policy. The majority in this one in Baltimore County got it very wrong.”

We’ll let the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, Jake Day, have the final say:  

“Housing growth does not lead to school overcrowding.  Outdated and inappropriate districting, funding shortfalls and mismanagement, outdated classrooms, lack of technology and delayed construction cause overcrowding, but more housing does not. … [A] 2017 study examined 234 public school districts and found “no meaningful correlation between housing production rates and enrollment growth over six years.”

 

8. 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.  They also take on a multitude of community-building efforts as well, from organizing events, to forging partnerships with businesses and other investors, to leading community service activities.

Current CDOs include the Southwest Visions Foundation (which Nick serves on the board of), the Greater Randallstown Community Development Organization, the Essex Community Development Corporation and the Greater Dundalk Community Development Organization.

CDOs are the tip of the spear when it comes to building trust and revitalizing communities.  They are also major force multipliers.  The County should direct significant funding to these CDOs and support their efforts to obtain grants from other governments and nonprofits.  We should also establish a formal CDO support network to ensure collaboration across and among CDOs.  And we should help 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).

 

9. Fix Impact Fees

In another example of the County “saying one thing and doing another,” the County enacted “impact fees” in 2019, which are fees paid by developers so government can make improvements to accommodate such development.  However, because the Council also approved exemption after exemption, the County failed to collect any such fees in 2023 and netted only $14,000 in 2022.  

Allegedly in response to this shortcoming, the County Council passed a law in 2024 that would make developers pay for the fee at the beginning of the project as opposed to at the end.  This does nothing to address the exemptions.  It simply makes it more expensive and risky for developers, builders and banks to try to deliver projects.  

We need more common sense here.  Anne Arundel County has been collecting impact fees since 2000 and has been able to invest $223 million into infrastructure as a result.

10. Unlock Our Economy

As we implement the above plan and communities begin to stabilize, we will be able to drive growth and rebuild Baltimore County’s economy in each of the communities in our One County Initiative by implementing Nick’s plan for economic development (read more here). Instead of raising taxes or cutting services, we’ll be able to grow our tax base, create family-sustaining and fulfilling jobs and unlock the enormous potential of Baltimore County’s economic assets.

Conclusion

Baltimore County needs new families.  And for that, we need new investment.  

We need to make it easier for investors of all sizes to come here.  By population, the County is bigger than 4 states, the City of Baltimore and the District of Columbia.  Investors from across the country should be seeking to invest here, but they’re not.    

That’s because, 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.  And the community won’t need to hire an attorney to engage in the process and advocate for their interests.

As the nonprofit Comprehensive Housing Associates Inc. shared in 2021—after Councilman Patoka vetoed their housing project in Pikesville against the recommendations of the Planning Department and Planning Board—”Until the political climate changes in Baltimore County, or they change their process, I don’t see us being able to build in Baltimore County.”

If we don’t bring the County into the modern age, this history will continue to repeat itself.  Fortunately, we have the plan and vision to do so—as One County.  

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