Thursday, August 16, 2012
A poll conducted by Annapolis-based Opinion Works shows that area residents have concerns about the development process, the economy, taxpayer burden and would like Foundry Row stopped or delayed.
A poll funded by developers who are opposed to Foundry Row shows that those surveyed have serious concerns about the development proposed for the Solo Cup plant site and would like to see it stopped or delayed. The Baltimore County Council votes whether to rezone the Solo property on Tuesday, Aug. 28. Those polled on behalf of "the Owings Mills Team" indicated developers have too much power over development decisions, there should be more public review of the project, the mall should be developed first, and the local economy and infrastructure cannot handle the project along with other Owings Mills developments. “A total of 62 percent said they oppose the project or think it should be delayed, 21 percent preferred that Foundry Row not be …
Monday, August 13, 2012
Leaders of the Say No to Solo Coalition delivered boxes of petitions signed by Baltimore County residents Monday.
Activists fighting the proposed Foundry Row development in Owings Mills delivered petitions signed by more than 7,000 Baltimore County residents to the Baltimore County Council Monday afternoon. Officials from Say No To Solo brought a box for each council member that contained copies of approximately 7,100 signatures of Baltimore County residents who are opposed to Foundry Row, the Wegmans-anchored development Greenberg Gibbons hopes to build at the Solo Cup site on Reisterstown Road. County Council chairwoman Vicki Almond will receive the original petitions, and the other council members will receive copies. “Vicki Almond kept saying right from the beginning there is no opposition,” said Shirley Supik, leader of the Say No to Solo …
Friday, August 3, 2012
Patch hit the streets to speak with residents and business owners near the Solo Cup plant, where developers are proposing to build the Wegmans-anchored center Foundry Row. Here's what they said.
As developers make moves on three Owings Mills projects, residents and business owners near the most controversial of the three remain concerned about negative impacts to the community. From grocery store employees to business owners to residents of Mill Towne Village Apartments, everyone's got something to say about Foundry Row, the Wegmans-anchored center proposed for the Solo Cup plant. Developer Greenberg Gibbons has applied to down-zone the property from manufacturing to retail, and plans to build a 130,000 square foot Wegmans, approximately 243,000 square feet of other retail, 13,500 square feet of restaurants and 40,000 square feet of office space. The developers behind two other projects -- the transit-oriented Metro Centre …
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
A study of the roads around the Solo Cup plant funded by Foundry Row developer Greenberg Gibbons shows that traffic will not worsen, and could improve, with full development of Foundry Row.
A study funded by Foundry Row developer Greenberg Gibbons says the company’s proposed improvements will remedy some traffic problems in the Reisterstown Road corridor. A memo from Mickey Cornelius of Baltimore-based The Traffic Group says that the proposed Wegmans-anchored retail and office center will improve a crucial intersection. “With significant road improvements to be made by the developers of Foundry Row, traffic conditions at the critical intersection of Reisterstown Road and Painters Mill Road will be better with the full development of the site than conditions projected without Foundry Row,” according to the memo. The Solo Cup site is the subject of a heated zoning debate. The traffic study has done little to cool the debate …
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Baltimore County Councilman Kenneth Oliver is asking his colleagues to delay rezoning Solo Cup for retails as Reisterstown Road traffic studies get completed.
Councilman Kenneth Oliver asked his colleagues to delay a decision on rezoning the Solo Cup property in Owings Mills for retail development until a state traffic study is completed. Oliver said he wants to give transportation officials time to finish studying and engineering traffic improvements on “the already overwhelming traffic congestion along Reisterstown Road” in a press release Tuesday. He said it would be premature to rezone a manufacturing property prior to the completion of those processes. “When we are talking about potentially committing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the traffic from a developer’s proposed private project, we need to fully understand the facts and the costs,” Oliver said in the release. In …
Friday, June 8, 2012
About 60 speakers voiced their opinions whether the proposed project would help or hurt residents and businesses in the Reisterstown Road Corridor.
Sixty people spoke out during a public hearing Thursday in Pikesville regarding Baltimore County's Comprehensive Zoning & Mapping Process for District 2. That's a significant number of speakers, compared to the 13 who signed up to speak during the 5th District's CZMP meeting on Monday. While the District 2 meeting dealt with 35 zoning issues, 68 percent of the speakers voiced their support or opposition to the proposed Foundry Row project along Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills. For the project to begin, the former Solo Cup manufacturing land, now owned by Greenberg Gibbons and scheduled to be developed along with Vanguard, must be rezoned from its current manufacturing to a business zone. Those who spoke about the project displayed …
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Economist Anirban Basu presented the positive economic impact of the Foundry Row project at a conference inside the Solo Cup factory Tuesday afternoon.
Owings Mills’ proposed Foundry Row development will be a catalyst for the area and create enormous economic opportunity for the state and county, including creating almost 3,100 permanent jobs, a top regional economist said Tuesday. “The project would provide the community with an important focal point in the form of a Wegmans, and this community has been crying out for a focal point for years,” said Anirban Basu, CEO of economic and policy consulting firm Sage Policy Group. Basu spoke to a group of local political and business officials inside the Solo Cup plant, which is now a dingy, dilapidated space with leaking ceilings sealed off with yellow caution tape. The crowd included former Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, county council …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Despite opposition from neighboring developers, Greenberg Gibbons officials are going full steam ahead with a grocery-anchored retail and office development at the Solo Cup site on Reisterstown Road.
Within two months, Foundry Row developer Greenberg Gibbons plans to demolish the 1.8 million square-foot Solo Cup site on Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills. In its place, he'll build a $140 million retail center anchored by Wegmans. Although two neighboring developers say the Baltimore County Council should not grant the former manufacturing site a commercial zoning classification, Greenberg Gibbons officials are confident that their project will breathe new life into Owings Mills. “We feel like it’s a natural retail corridor,” Tom Fitzpatrick, president and COO at Greenberg Gibbons, said in an interview with Patch in advance of a news conference on the project next Tuesday. The company is set to release an economic impact study. The …
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The Owings Mills Corporate Roundtable's letter to county officials is contrary to what some developers have argued.
Owings Mills business leaders sent a letter to several county officials that contradicts the sentiment that three development projects in Owings Mills amounts to too many. The letter was prompted by recent “news articles and statements at public meetings” in which officials involved with the mall redevelopment and Metro Centre project have said they oppose redevelopment proposed for the Solo Cup plant. Patch Monday afternoon obtained a copy of the Owings Mills Roundtable's letter, which said that the group “has expressed its general support for all three projects.” The group consists of Owings Mills' largest employers and major stakeholders, such as T. Rowe Price, Stevenson University, Legg Mason and more. “Having quality nearby retail for…
exd
3:49 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
If the arrival of Wegmans forces out one or more of the existing supermarkets - it will be their own fault for not providing the types of goods and services the public is looking for. If they wanted to keep their customers, they would have been already providing the things that Wegmans offers, and there wouldn't be a such a rousing chorus of calls for a Wegmans in the neighborhood. If you want to… more ›