Neighbors Worry Hilltop Development Will Bring Displacement, Traffic

"Where are all those people going to park?"

That seemed to be the question on the minds of many of the 100 or so locals who packed into a standing-room only meeting in the basement of the Roger Carter Recreation Center Wednesday night.

Residents wanted to know where they and, more importantly, visitors to the proposed new recreation center, would park if the county was to approve a development proposal at Hilltop Housing, a Howard County public housing complex.

And there were other concerns.

“What about the people on Hilltop?” Elise Ham, a former Hilltop resident asked.  “Are you sure they are going to be there when you build this beautiful place?”

The proposed development is mixed-income and will have both subsidized and market-rate apartments. When asked if the current residents would be guaranteed a place to live for the same rent they were paying now, Thomas Carbo, the county’s deputy director of Housing and Community Development said there would be zero displacement.

“For what they’re paying now?” Ham asked

“Yes,” Carbo replied.

“Can we get that in writing?” she added.

And when another resident asked “Why would I want to move in if I know the guy next to me is paying less?” Carbo assured him that mixed-income developments had been successful in the past around the country and the county.

“You probably don’t even know they’re there,” he said of similar developments in Howard County.

"Hilltop is losing money," Carbo remarked. A mixed-income development won't, he added.

In all, 204 units of one- two- and three-bedroom apartments would replace the 94 existing apartments at Hilltop Housing, which sits half-way up Ellicott Mills Drive, on the east side of the street.

Included in the project is a new Roger Carter Recreation Center, which would have, among other amenities, a pool, rock-climbing wall, basketball court, indoor track and a general room for events.

Several attendees voiced concern that bringing people to the center would lead to more traffic, both on Ellicott Mills Drive and on the already-congested Main Street.

And Barry Horowitz, who lives in the abutting Chapelview neighborhood had another parking concern. He said a proposed two-story parking lot would sit about 60 feet from his home. The developer, Stavrou Associates, said they’d bring pictures of some changes they’d made to appease him and his neighbors, “But I don’t see any,” he replied.

Other preliminary suggestions offered by the state-- such as allowing parallel parking on Ellicott Mills Drive and having a drop-off site for the recreation center that would direct traffic through the length of the neighborhood-- drew sighs and groans from attendees, as did the estimated $15 million cost.

“Phew.”

“Mmmm.”

“Woah.”

This pre-submission community meeting only dealt with the Hilltop neighborhood. The housing commission is also working with developers on a project for the site of the current recreation center, across the street from Hilltop. Those plans will follow about 8 months to a year behind the Hilltop development.

Ham said there were only a few people at the meeting who were current residents of the Hilltop development. But she and other former residents said they were concerned about the potential of displacement as well as the future of the current Roger Carter Recreation Center, formerly a police station and, before that, a segregated, black elementary school that Ham and others had attended.