Back in 2011, former Baltimore County Councilman Melvin G. Mintz caught up with his old friend Benzion “Nick” Attias over lunch.
“I had not seen Nick for some time,” Mintz recalls. “He was a longtime, beloved Pikesville advocate who sadly passed away in 2014. I bemoaned to Nick that Pikesville in recent times had not seen much progress, and a new plan was needed. Nick challenged me and said, ‘You did it once Mel, do it again.’ So I began.”
Together with Attias and former Del. Howard J. Needle, Mintz formed an organization called 1,000 Friends of Pikesville with the goal of recruiting 1,000 or more advocates of the Northwest Baltimore community and others to support the creation of a plan for Pikesville, with the vacant Pikesville Armory as its centerpiece.
Today, 1,000 Friends of Pikesville — also known as 1kFP — continues to forge ahead. Jmore recently caught up with Mintz to discuss 1kFP and the Pikesville Revitalization Action Plan.
Jmore: 1kFP is one of the partners spearheading the Pikesville Revitalization Action Plan. What are the plan’s primary components?
Mintz: Revitalization entails the use of modern planning concepts to create a more pedestrian-friendly, less car-centric feel for Pikesville, a more village-like feel. The plan deploys land redevelopment opportunities while also addressing parking and traffic flow.
The goal is to create a more inviting place to draw people from their home computer terminals and the sticky world of internet shopping, and back into the public sphere, to Pikesville, to dine, shop and actively participate in our community. The Pikesville Armory Foundation is a nonprofit working on detailed plans for the reuse of the armory as defined in the PRAP.
What are your concerns about Pikesville’s future?
We need to conscientiously avoid relegating the corridor into a convenience-and-necessity-only trip to the cleaners or grocery store. We need to create a destination that generates ‘chained trips’ and invites our residents to group-run errands, shop and dine in one trip instead of returning home in between each visit. This will ultimately lead to Pikesville’s enhanced viability and sustainability.
How does the armory play a role?
Pikesville is missing a centerpiece, and the armory would be a great place to create that sense of place. I have seen a lot of redevelopments take place in communities where there is an older, challenged commercial core, and I have seen two concepts emerge that often lead to success: waterfront development and the creation of artwork and arts districts.
Obviously, Pikesville does not have a waterfront. But the creation of artwork and the establishment of an arts district in the middle of Pikesville is an excellent idea. Baltimore County’s Office of Planning has also conducted surveys revealing that Pikesville, Baltimore County and Maryland State residents like to produce and be around and engaged in arts spaces. The Pikesville Armory could help re-establish this sense of place and attract not only Pikesville residents but potentially people from the entire mid-Atlantic region. A Pikesville arts district has the potential to transform our commercial corridor.
How do you hope to actualize the plan?
For the first time in Baltimore County/Pikesville planning history, we have a revitalization plan with a detailed timeline and an active, crackerjack group of established Pikesville advocates appointed by the county to monitor and implement the plan. The designation of this group — the Pikesville Revitalization Action Plan Committee — to monitor the timeline and oversee its implementation was a critical first step.
What are the initiative’s primary challenges?
Look at the Pikesville corridor of Reisterstown Road — it is not pedestrian-friendly. Traffic is a huge challenge, and there has been no focus on identifying a unifying concept. Those are challenges, but opportunities exist to address these because there is the armory and other public land available to address them, and we clearly have a county administration and councilman who are committed to working with us.
What is required to drive the plan forward?
Billy Chase, a former member of the county planning board, Deane Rundelle, a Pikesville resident and nationally recognized land planner, and I authored 80% of the plan. Our initial efforts involved conducting over 100 one-on-one interviews with community stakeholders, associations and experts to glean the best and most feasible ideas for a new revitalization initiative. The county wants artwork there, the state wants artwork there, and the community wants artwork there.
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski has also worked in an extraordinary fashion to ensure the creation of legislation to address our opportunity. Executive Olszewski introduced the plan and then the Baltimore County Council, under the leadership of Councilman Izzy Patoka, approved the legislation.
Former Gov. Larry Hogan also ensured citizen engagement by producing a unanimous, community-arrived-upon agreement on a vision for the reuse of the armory.
How much funding has been pledged to this effort so far?
So far, over $10 million in capital funding has been earmarked toward renovations at the armory and has been made available from a combination of federal, state and county dollars.
What can residents do to get involved?
Please check out 1kFP’s website at 1000FriendsofPikesville.org, read the Pikesville Revitalization Action Plan, and follow the activities of the Pikesville Revitalization Action Plan Committee. This is a public plan, so it is your plan, our plan, and only together can we make it happen.
Billy Treger is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
A former resident of Baltimore and central Florida, Ritt was active in the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
For more than four decades, Goldman played a vital role in the supervision of elections in the city.
The 16-year-old sophomore succumbed to injuries sustained in a car crash last week in Cockeysville.
Schools in Montgomery County have recently experienced a wave of antisemitic incidents.