The Crown Cork & Seal complex, which would be retained but significantly renovated as part of the HLD. The coal train stands in for the not-yet-realized Red Line. Photo by flickr user C'bou.
Used to be any serious town was built on a river; then the railroad became the thing as we moved out west. Now, despite recent decades of automobile-enabled sprawl, some developers are returning to the old wisdom with ambitious plans for infill construction in Southeast Baltimore along the route of the proposed Red Line.
The Southeast Community Development Corporation and the Greektown Community Development Corporation recently held a meeting to examine the possibility of establishing not simply new residences, but an entirely new neighborhood between Highlandtown and Greektown. If this proposal comes through, it could prove a brilliant example of urban symbiosis.
The neighborhood, tentatively called the Highlandtown Loft District, could accommodate up to 4,000 new residences and, unlike nearby Canton (site of recent Red Line protests) the HLD’s existence would be predicated upon the use of public transit as the primary means of travel throughout the city. This design element would provide a solid foundation for the still-wobbly dream of the Red Line and would also take advantage of the presumed light-rail stop to draw residents to a previously uninhabitable area. The stop would be located near Haven Street and Eastern Avenue, and the new neighborhood would circle out from this point, encompassing a stretch that has, until now, been zoned mostly for manufacturing.
Everything’s still in the drawing board phase, for the Highlandtown Loft District no less than for the Red Line, but over the next ten years, these two plans could help one another become part of a real and more sustainable Baltimore.
What’s the latest you’ve heard about the Red Line or the HLD?
Posted in: Canton, Development News, HighlandtownNo Comments
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