November 16, 2017

Reservoir / Druid Hill / Mondawmin: Turning the corner

The corridor from Reservoir Hill to Druid Hill Park to Mondawmin is at a critical stage right now. It has the city's best park, best shopping mall, best transit outside downtown and some of its most attractive housing, but the recently announced closure of the Target store has dealt a bitter blow.

As such, the area's most critical development zone is not where you'd expect: It's the two block "no man's land" at the elbow where these three areas should and could come together, but don't.
The old "gold coast" high rises of Reservoir Hill looking west along Druid Park Lake Drive should be extended to wrap slightly around the corner toward Mondawmin (three new buildings, upper right).
Druid Lake will be shrunk somewhat over the next five years to construct underground water tanks. 

This small point is exactly where the development growth spreading northward from downtown to  midtown to Bolton Hill to Reservoir Hill comes grinding to a halt. Then two blocks beyond, north of Fulton Avenue, activity picks up again toward Mondawmin. This small two block area could be called "Reserdawmin Hill". Or some better name.

Development of this small area would allow Reservoir Hill to wrap around and embrace Druid Hill Park in a way that's not now possible, and create some common ground with the greater Mondawmin community, turning the corner, integrating them and blurring their boundaries.

Reservoir Hill is the growing neighborhood between North Avenue (US 1, lower left) and Druid Lake.
 Greater Mondawmin (upper left) is the large neighborhood west of huge Druid Hill Park (upper right).
"Reserdawmin Hill" could be the tie that binds them.

Traffic is in the cause and the cure  


The northwestern of the two blocks is dominated by one of the city's most bizarre intersections -  between Druid Park Lake Drive, McCulloh Street, Druid Hill Avenue and Fulton Avenue (see Google Earth map below). It's an intersection that literally screams "stay away!" to any pedestrians who might happen to venture nearby. It's also confusing for motorists. But moreover, it's a huge waste of space that infects and deadens both the main corner of  Druid Hill Park to the north and the triangular piece of parkland to the west toward Auchentoroly Terrace, making it not feel like part of Druid Hill Park at all. Residents of the attractive victorian rowhouses along Auchentoroly make the best of this, but they must feel like they're living on the edge of the world instead of next to the best park in the city.

The other block, bounded by Druid Park Lake Drive, McCulloh Street, Cloverdale Road and Madison Avenue, is occupied by a small outpost of the city's Department of Recreation and Parks offices. That's a gross underutilization for a parcel at the primary gateway of Druid Hill Park. Rec and Parks no doubt uses it only because it's there.

A third slender block between these two is occupied by basketball courts, which seems to be an odd use and not very convenient to the nearby communities or the rest of the park. However, they are otherwise lacking in recreational facilities and it's not critical to new development.

Existing traffic lanes through "Reserdawmin Hill": Reservoir Hill is to the lower right. Mondawmin is to the left. Druid Hill Park is to the top. Rec and Parks office in the little house on the right block.
 Basketball courts on the lower block. Snarling intersection on the upper block.

The traffic flow at this sprawling intersection is grossly imbalanced. Southbound flow is actually very efficient, comprised of three traffic lanes. The right lane flows thru into Druid Hill Avenue, the left lane turns left into eastbound Druid Park Lake Drive, while the center lane has a choice of either direction (for drivers who aren't quite sure where they're going).

In contrast, northbound flow is a giant mess. It's seven lanes in all, with enough pavement for an eighth or even a ninth lane, both of which had to be hashed out because there's no room for those lanes to go. It's an orgy of asphalt. Five of the seven lanes merge into northbound McCulloh Street, which eventually changes names again to Auchentoroly or Swann or Swan. Madison Avenue becomes a different Swann in the park. An "Ugly Duckling" turning into a Swann? The street names are almost as confusing as the streets themselves.

Merging zones like this belong on Interstate highways, not city streets. The merges beg aggressive motorists to go faster and faster. But the merge point is at the exact location of the pedestrian crosswalk into the park, instilling a helpless feeling on anyone attempting to cross.

All this was in fact originally designed to resemble an Interstate highway, or at least to transition into one. Interstate 795, built in the 1980s from the Beltway outward toward Owings Mills, was originally (in the 1950s) supposed to proceed inward into the city along what later became the Wabash Avenue corridor, then proceed further to the Park Circle area, and then into this web of traffic lanes here along the edge of Druid Hill Park.

The two remaining lanes of the seven are directed to turn left into Fulton Avenue. This is OK, but the lanes take up a lot of space because they are segregated from the rest of the traffic, which also means motorists are screwed if they don't get in the proper lane two blocks in advance near Madison Avenue.

Proposed "Reserdawmin Hill" plan. Southbound traffic flow would stay as-is,
 but northbound flow would be greatly consolidated as shown.

The solution is to just design two normal intersections, one at Fulton and the other at the end Druid Park Lake Drive. The southbound traffic patterns won't change at all. For the northbound traffic, the high speed merge would be eliminated and all the traffic would be consolidated into three lanes on each approach, with an additional lane or two between the two intersections for left turns into Fulton. This layout would free-up a significant amount of land where the high speed merge lanes are currently located on Druid Park Lake Drive (see graphic above).

The exact number of lanes should be determined by further study of the larger area traffic patterns all the way north along Druid Hill Park, to greatly reduce the park's isolation from the Mondawmin community. Along the park, all the through traffic in both directions should be concentrated in the five lanes now used for northbound flow, thus enabling the elimination of through traffic on the street immediately adjacent to the houses on Auchentoroly Terrace (see article from Baltimore Brew)

This is very do-able, and would be a major relief to the neighborhood and a major enhancement to Druid Hill Park. Relief is needed even for the two blocks of Auchentoroly just north of Fulton where most through traffic is shifted away from the houses, because the remaining thru traffic goes too fast, as evidenced by the "speed humps" that had to be installed - a stopgap band-aid kind of solution.

Northernmost hi-rise is the key to the plan. It would actually feel like it is part of the Mondawmin community (upper right), Druid Hill Park (bottom) and Reservoir Hill (left) at the same time. Also of note is the distinctive architecture of the city utility building just across the street from the proposed high rise. It was originally a streetcar storage facility. The nine-lane highway north of this intersection should also be narrowed at some point.


The "Reserdawmin Hill" plan


The goal of the plan is to bring Mondawmin, Reservoir Hill and Druid Hill Park together for the benefit of all. In terms of cold economics, the goal is to strengthen the primary local market area for retail in Mondawmin Mall (like the Target property) and for the neighborhoods as a whole.

The freed-up space adjacent to the park by downsizing the intersection south of Fulton should be used for high density residential development. This is one of the best places in all of north Baltimore for high rise housing because it would not directly impact anyone, but it would also infuse new life into the park and eliminate the "no man's land" between Reservoir Hill and Mondawmin. The nearby neighborhoods are dominated by thousands of rowhouses, so modern attractive high rises would be a welcome new market choice. These new buildings would also complement and relate to the adjacent historic high rise buildings just to the south along Druid Lake in Reservoir Hill (see top graphic).

There are probably legal issues to be addressed in this plan, but the sheer amount of park land should not be an issue. Druid Hill Park is huge and much of the park land does not even function as park land. More and better park land would be created by downsizing the highways that wrap around the park. And most of all, even more new park land is about to be created by burying much of Druid Lake for the safety of its drinking water. 

The real issue is not the gross amount of park land. It's maximizing the quality and usefulness of that land for real people, especially the land at the park's edges which most serve the surrounding neighborhoods.

Good sites for attractive high density housing are hard to find. This is a great one because it is on the cusp of two very ambitious and promising neighborhoods, along with the city's premiere park. Baltimore needs to get away from its waterfront development tunnel vision. Housing which is a true catalyst for the whole city's growth and which can return much more in the future should be a high priority.

There's going to be a big construction mess in this corner of Druid Hill Park for the next five years to build the new underground water tanks. Let's make it worth it.

9 comments:

  1. As always, I appreciate your vision and how you highlight underdeveloped areas of the city. I am curious if you think there is demand for high rise housing in this area and what incentives would be needed to spur development. Also, now that Parks & People has their office on the other side of this asphalt monstrosity, do you think they would be willing to throw their support behind this effort and build a coalition to advocate for this change? I see the potential in this plan, but I don't see anyone willing to take on the risk of building on that spot unless the city makes it a priority and the community is behind it.

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    1. Sounds like you know the politics better than I do, Tim! As for economics and incentives, who knows? Anyway, I'm glad you asked.

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  2. I know you say that the high rises are critical to this, but this whole thing seems to scream for a traffic circle instead of the two intersection option. What would you think if that?

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  3. I heard that scream too! Way back in 2012, a roundabout screamed, "Draw me!" so I did: https://baltimoreinnerspace.blogspot.com/2012/05/druid-hill-park-roundabout.html

    A roundabout might be the best solution to calm the traffic, but the "people problem" is more important. The area needs lots of people, especially stakeholders.

    As for high rises, I'd say the north site at Fulton needs to be a high rise because it needs to stand out. It would look sort of weird for a building that's essentially in the park to be a low rise. The other buildings could be low rise or rowhouses because there are many factors I haven't considered such as the market risk and politics, as Tim just pointed out.

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  4. I love the thinking behind this plan. This massive change to the lake is exactly the time to rethink the dangerous roads cutting the park off from the neighborhoods. Reservoir Hill will never see the full renaissance it deserves and has been fighting for without changes made to neighborhood access to the park and the lake.

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  5. Auchentoroly resident and urbanist here. I appreciate your interest in addressing our traffic and development challenges. Councilman Leon Pinkett has assembled a growing group of stakeholders and city agencies pushing for a community-based plan to rebuild Druid Park Lake Drive and Auchentoroly Terrace as "complete streets" with less lanes, slower speeds, more access points for pedestrians, protected bike lanes, and forward thinking placemaking elements. DOT is initiating a traffic study that will feed into a planning process for stakeholder to envision the future of how we connect with and around Druid Hill Park. In the meantime, we are also pushing for temporary demonstration projects like public art crosswalks and a cycletrack on DPLD during the construction disruptions. (Lake construction will require that DPLD be winnowed down to 2 lanes for two years. They are taking a lane for heavy equipment access and Bikemore is proposing that we take a lane for bikes.) Many of us also see this as an opportunity to develop a conservancy for the park to raise money for new amenities like a band shell to go on top of the outdoor stage that will be built next to the new lake shoreline. Alone, these access and open space improvements will go a long way towards helping our existing residents and attracting new housing options. See architect Davin Hong's op-ed here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-druid-potential-20170608-story.html

    As for new building sites, my opinion is to support new infill development on existing sites around the park before gobbling up park land. That whole intersection you dissect was originally carved out of park lane back in 1947 as part of the Druid Hill Expressway. Dr. Daniel Hindman's op-ep outlines the problematic history of how city officials supported commuter convenience at the expense of the public safety and park access previously enjoyed by the predominiently Jewish and African American residents, and why we must rebuild these streets to improve public health: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-1020-druid-hill-expressway-20171017-story.html There are two major vacant lots along Druid Park Lake Drive that can sustain higher density development. The one at Linden is already under development. We still have several vacant lots within within Reservoir Hill and Mondawmin that would make for excellent affordable and market rate housing.

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    1. Graham, I sure hope you're right about this new planning effort after decades of futility, but a major part of the problem is that infill housing and "complete streets" are both painfully slow strategies and don't address basic problems. "Infill housing" efforts have been going on for decades in Reservoir Hill and Mondawmin and every property becomes a new struggle. "Complete streets" is just a battle over street space. It fits Bikemore's confrontational style, but that's about all.

      The basic problem I'm trying to address here is simply that the two blocks of park frontage between Fulton and Madison Avenue is dead, and no amount of infill housing elsewhere will keep it from remaining dead. This creates a formidable passive barrier between Reservoir Hill, Druid Hill Park and Auchentoroly Terrace. Your characterization of "gobbling up parkland" sounds like a turf war.

      The basic problem I addressed in my 2010 Baltimore Brew article - https://baltimoreinnerspace.blogspot.com/2010/11/druid-hill-park-traffic-diversion-plan.html - is that the heavy traffic is far too close to the houses on Auchentoroly, with the median being just another dead space. (I'm sorry that after 7 years, the graphics got lost in cyberspace for this story. I should try to dig them out.)

      No amount of "complete streets" will reduce the wall of traffic, and reallocating traffic space for bikes won't help either. Bikes need to be away from traffic, either inside the park or on lower traffic streets.

      Since Bikemore sued the City, setting up a confrontational relationship, maybe the City will finally realize it needs to take a different approach instead of us vs. them.

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    2. I agree that it would be great to see better activation along the southwestern corner of the park. There are several warehouses along that edge that could be redeveloped to that end. Seawall has a proof of concept with their R:house project. There is also a non-historic property at the SW corner of McCulloh that could be replaced with a mixed use, higher density residential without have to use parkland. Doing so would also activate the streets and improve safety for youth participating the in the historic Cloverdale Athletic Club (which btw is a hugely popular asset that is easy to walk to for kids at nearby schools.) http://www.citypaper.com/sports/bcp-101817-cloverdale-20171017-story.html

      Complete streets is not a one size fits all. The approach results in different outcomes depending on the site and stakeholder needs. Any major road configuration, including your most recent idea, would be "painfully slow" to execute. Based on the stakeholder meetings I've been in, we are all interested in actually removing multiple lanes and creating more crossings, among other improvements, that would slow down traffic and turn the former expressway into a 4 lane urban boulevard more appropriate for a urban park boundary/gateway. (Imagine St. Charles Ave in NOLA.) That would mitigate the wall of traffic effect and partially restore parkland to how it existed pre-1947. The problem with your 2010 proposal is that it still leaves a huge wall of traffic in the park, perpetuating the current condition of us residents having to face down motorists going murderously fast while we try to actually walk into the park we live next to. A complete streets approach would force everyone to slow down and make DPLD and Auchentoroly more liveable. Motorists can find other ways to commute to the suburbs or simply slow down to save our lives and enable residents to enjoy our wonderful amenities.

      As a commuter cyclist, I would prefer to take a lane along DPLD and Auchentoroly for a protected two-way cycletrack, similar to the one on Maryland Ave that has proven effective and highly trafficked by people who rely on bike to get to work and school. We deserve the same safety and convenience as motorists. That means aligning low-stress bike facilities with major avenues, as well as smaller streets for secondary connectors. Motorists would only have to give up a lane to accommodate our safety and rebalance the overbuilt, induced capacity created via traffic sewers around the park.

      Bikemore has been actively working with DOT and Planning before and after their Potomac St lawsuit. Their approach on the west side has been to actively listen to the needs of residents and work with us on advocating for near and long term solutions. I've seen this in numerous meetings around the park and greater Mondawmin. We are excited for city departments to do the same and hear how residents want to slow down cars while creating more access points so kids and old people can safely enjoy the park.

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    3. Thanks for responding! Again, the problem with infill including adaptive reuse of warehouses is that this is a "dead area" and thus has the lowest property values in the area, so it would be a highly risky and thus unlikely investment.

      Sounds like you're solution to "slow down cars" is to create more congestion. The problem there is that the City is very actively trying to increase auto traffic with major non-transit oriented developments that rely on major parking lots and garages, so congestion is like a growing cancer. But good luck! There's got to be a solution here somewhere...

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