Comments of Stuart D. Kaplow, Chair of the Board of the Greater Towson Committee, at the occasion of the 2003 annual meeting.

This is an historic time – 2003 is the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the first business in Towson. The first residents of this area were planters, and Thady Tracey, a cooper by trade, set up shop in 1703. While the exact location of his shop on his some 200-acre property is not known, it was likely located where Sushi Hana stands today on Pennsylvania Avenue, one block east of York Road.

On this 300th anniversary of the first business in Towson, I am excited that we are on the cusp of a Renaissance. My purpose is not to provide a timeline of the last three centuries, but rather to look forward into the next 300 years of Towson.

Many think of a Renaissance as the humanistic revival of classical art, literature, and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th Century and later spread throughout Europe. I am confident that GTC can and will, in concert with our new County Executive, the new Economic Development Director, and new County Councilman, create a Towson Renaissance. A period of revival, intellectual and artistic achievement and building ignited by our institutions of higher learning and advanced by the business community. And that Renaissance will spread throughout Baltimore County.

The Greater Towson Committee is a metropolitan economic development corporation whose mission is to promote investment in greater Towson through redevelopment and revitalization of property and infrastructure for the common good. As one of the core functions of GTC, marketing and communication plays a critical role in the overall success of the GTC’s ability to fulfill its mission. The new website www.greatertowson.com is a cutting edge approach at economic development.

Competing against regions across the country for an ever-shrinking number of business location projects requires accentuating our positives, and among our greatest attributes is the concentration of college graduates and PhDs in our available labor pool.

We can come together to make Towson the choice of a new generation of talented workers graduating from our Towson area colleges and universities. The Greater Baltimore Alliance has reported that by 2010, the Baltimore region will have lost some 100,000 workers in the key 24 to 44 year age group, as those young people migrate away and others fail to migrate in. The region needs some 108,000 more college graduates in its 2010 workforce than the research indicates will exist. Towson can be the hub within the region in attracting and retaining that needed workforce.

This metropolitan area is a national leader in number of undergraduate institutions available, with 26 public and private four-year and two-year colleges within a 30-minute commute of Towson. In an era when work force development is key, Towson is buttressed by Goucher College to the north and Towson University to the south, with Loyola College, Johns Hopkins University, and the College of Notre Dame but minutes away, and only slightly further is the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the campuses of the community colleges of Baltimore County.

Towson is a college town and we should talk loudly about the qualifications of the available labor pool, accentuating the concentration of college graduates and PhDs. If there is any question about the influence that our colleges and universities have, we need only look at the sheer numbers. On any given day, there are more than 17,000 college students attending classes at Towson University and Goucher College alone. And upon graduation, we want those young people living and working in Towson.

Many businesspeople that visit the County seat of government that Towson is during the day are unaware that Towson streets are the most crowded and have the most people about on weekend nights after 10:00 p.m., with college age patrons and patrons in their 20’s and 30’s attending the Recher Theater, the party goers at the Odd Fellow’s Lodge, and others dining and socializing in Towson.

Just as Raleigh Durham is a success because of the qualifications of the available labor pool, Towson is among the best places for business, bar none, because of our pool of educated and talented workers.

I propose that we market our high concentration of college graduates and PhDs with our existing Opportunities Map, later this year, in Towson’s first real estate industry walking tour.

And GTC is more than marketing. Economic development and prosperity of Towson hinge on its ability to successfully gain and retain employers and the jobs and the investments they create. GTC’s fundamental strategy is to position Towson as a competitive and viable business location so that Towson becomes a frequent and successful contender in the site location and expansion decisions of companies. And to do so successfully requires an interaction with government and NGOs (non government organizations).

Towson was not only Baltimore County’s first growth area in 1703, but three centuries later it needs to be Baltimore County’s growth area of choice. Owings Mills and White Marsh were the growth areas of the 1990’s and Hunt Valley continues to be a de facto growth area, but we need to champion Towson not only as Baltimore County’s first growth area, but as the growth area of choice.

To be the location of choice we need to have parking. We need to address parking meter woes and to effectuate changes in the policies of the Revenue Authority about how and when new parking garages are built.

Additionally, before we uncork the champagne and celebrate the ‘smiting from the lexicon’ of the bipolar policy of Smart Growth that restricts sprawl but also limits density through neighborhood conservation, GTC should work with our County Executive on his announced project, this year, to effectuate a good, hard look at our land use regulations in favor of redevelopment. We need to champion practices and policies that favor redevelopment. We need to advocate for Brownfields projects and other government incentive programs that can advantage the Renaissance of Towson. We need to work with our elected officials in a way we never have before to promote redevelopment.

I have as a goal this year that GTC will champion a public debate, recognizing that our land use regulation is more democratic than ever but wondering if it is any better?

There has been much written in recent years by planners, urban experts and students of government accepting that the era of the ‘master builder’ is out and that the ear of ‘consensus and process’ are in. Whether it is Walter Sondheim and Charles Center or Jim Rouse and Columbia, master builders are out. But many question whether the fractious but more democratic system that replaced the master builders is any better at arriving at what is best for most people, for “the common good.”

The theory of common good, which dates back to Aristotle, holds that because human beings are fundamentally social animals, the welfare of many and the welfare of the individual are inextricably linked. The drinking water from Baltimore’s reservoirs is measured against the damage to a flooded community or an ecosystem. The Beltway road system and our airports that discomfits a few people must be weighed against the benefit to millions who are given more transportation options.

Urban scale building in greater Towson portends not only employment and housing, but an increased real estate tax base (that funds schools and libraries) while advancing rural preservation in the two-thirds of our County that is beyond the URDL.

The trick has always been how to calculate the common good and some urban affairs experts say they’re not sure and in the age of anti-government sentiment, market ideology, and self-interest, whether the common good even exists anymore. Whatever the failings of the old master builders, that process of building cut through the clutter. Today, when residents push our elected officials to legislate against approval of a single story fast food restaurant in downtown Towson, what does that foretell for the approval of the next high rise multi use complex in Towson; and have we unintentionally banned Starbucks with the confused legislation?

It is clear we have embraced and increased democratization and increased process. Are we getting more participation? Yes. Are we getting creativity or good development? I’m not sure. What weight should be given increased real estate tax base (that fund schools and libraries)? I think we have failed. What happened to the public good? I don’t know.

That is not to say that land development by committee is invariably a failure or that the master builders of past years always hit homeruns, but today we must accept that with litigation exploding and community and special interest groups finding that they can use litigation as a tool to block or kill projects they do not like, the public good is at risk in Baltimore County. What came to be called political correctness has also advanced, making government leaders careful about giving offense by even publicly discussing the issues of public good.

I was taken by the words of Alexander Garvin, the Chief Planner for redevelopment in Manhattan charged with redeveloping Ground Zero. He said, “Greatness is the product of extraordinary people, and they emerge from time to time, or a situation emerges in which greatness, including greatness in building form, can happen.”

My hope is that a common good will emerge in Towson but that no one person, not even me, could or should articulate or anticipate it. It’s not something that a single person should enunciate, because many people have a right and a responsibility to help shape that public good. If we work together, the Greater Towson Committee will be at the fore of shaping that public good and, just maybe, it will amount to greatness in Towson.