OWINGS MILLS, Md. — A new county bill allows housing to be built in large office parks in Owings Mills, and several properties are hoping to take advantage of that.
One of them is the Red Brook Corporate Center, with 600,000 square feet of office space on Red Brook Boulevard, between Red Run and Pleasant Hill Road.
Developer David S. Brown hopes to add 151 townhomes to the office park, said attorney David Karceski at a county development review meeting last week.
T. Rowe Price made a similar application regarding its large Owings Mills campus, but asked last week to table the request.
Two residents spoke out at the meeting, expressing concerns about the Red Brook housing potentially becoming "Section 8 housing" and the potential impact on the school system.
(The property does already include a 36-unit condo building.)
Barnett Matthews asked if this will be "another 'Section 8' building in the New Town area," and said there's a lot of concern that developers are trying to "influx the area with 'Section 8.'"
He added:
A lot of us are against it.
County development manager Lloyd Moxley said he's not sure there's any "Section 8" right now.
Development Review Division Chief Jenifer Nugent said it's affordable housing, not Section 8.
Sheena Ogee, whose children attend Lyons Mill Elementary School, wanted to clarify whether this new development was taken into account during the most recent school boundary study.
She said she wants to make sure this housing plan would not overburden local schools.
Meawhile, county representatives questioned the arrangement of housing shown on the new plan (with some being grouped separately), asked for a school impact report, and asked about stormwater management (given the steepness of the slopes).
