The ever-growing number of jobs predicted to flood Aberdeen Proving Ground ? and the attendant residential, business and infrastructure boom ? has become the chief preoccupation of developers and planners in Harford County.
In the summer of 2005, the Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted to close several military bases and move their functions to Maryland through Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground and Edgewood Arsenal.
With tens of thousands of jobs and workers expected to come into the county thanks to the realignment, officials are seeking ways to house them, educate them and transport them all to expanding areas of industrial and commercial development.
A BRAC-RELATED BOOM
The planned relocation of the U.S. Army?s Communications and Electronic Command from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen will bring an estimated 8,200 or more on-post jobs to Harford County over the next five to 10 years, said Office of Economic Development Acting Director Denise Carnaggio.
Another 7,500 to 10,000 jobs would be created “off-base” through defense contractors and information technology firms, and 30,000 or more jobs could be created in the “service and support” sector, Carnaggio said.
Since the realignment was announced, the number of anticipated jobs has leaped from 5,000 to nearly 10,000, depending on which official is speaking. One of the county?s aims is to nail down a common set of assumptions, including how many new jobs will come with BRAC, said Lorraine Costello, director of administration.
“You can see the uptick starting. Everything from doctors and lawyers to air-conditioning repair people” could see an increase in business from the base?s expansion, said Bill Seccurro, the county?s Chamber of Commerce president.
New companies already are filling in empty industrial space and are driving the expansion of office parks around the county. In an informal survey, 17 of 18 major defense contractors said they were looking to double the size of their facilities, Carnaggio said.
REVIEWING and REZONING
County Executive David Craig convened a special BRAC committee when it first seemed possible that Aberdeen would be affected by the realignment. Subgroups of the committee were given the task of examining the county?s myriad needs: building a well-trained work force, bringing the county?s roads, utilities and other infrastructure up to the level required by new development and finding land zoned and ready for building.
The committee is expected to deliver a report on the county?s needs and recommended actions by July, Costello said.
Inadequate public facilities and a lack of large, open parcels of land zoned for development must be overcome before new large-scale projects can be built, said Moe Davenport, chief of the county?s Development Review Section.
“We don?t have those big chunks of land left, like [large residential developments] Box Hill or Riverside from back in the ?80s,” Davenport said.
Part of the county?s process for opening up to redevelopment has been a comprehensive zoning review ? a single bill incorporating hundreds of changes to how areas of the county can be developed ? currently in limbo after disagreements between the County Council and county executive led to a veto of the bill.
“At this point, everything?s still operating under the 1997 zoning codes,” said Pete Gutwald, director of Planning and Zoning.
“We would love to see the zoning process move forward,” Seccurro said. The county needs more commercial and office space, he said, and guidelines need to be clarified for mixing office and retail.
THE FACILITIES PROBLEM
Most of the area?s new residential development has been limited in the past five years by county laws requiring adequate public schools, police and fire services, Davenport said. Overcrowded schools have squeezed developments around the county, but planners are hoping the opening of two new schools at Patterson Mill will relieve some of that pressure and reopen the area to new building, he said.
The county executive vowed he would seek $218 million to expand and modernize area high schools by 2010, including Bel Air and Edgewood, both of which are more than 50 years old.
Patterson Mill, Edgewood, Bel Air, North Harford and Aberdeen high schools would all get additional class spaces to increase their capacity to 1,600 students each, said schools spokesman Don Morrison. While Patterson Mill and North Harford are already in the pipeline, expansion at the other schools would depend on state and county funding.
“We don?t have a choice,” Morrison said. “BRAC will not wait.”
Army Alliance Inc., a nonprofit group established three years ago to attract business and industry to Aberdeen, contracted Frederick Ward and Associates to perform a study of the area?s transportation needs.
FWA made several recommendations for improving roads and transit close to Aberdeen Proving Ground, said senior planner Ed Steere. FWA proposed extending Route 715 ? the main access road for the base ? out as far as Interstate 95 to give commuters more direct access.
“There?s an ample opportunity here. We have a work-force commute rate of 48 percent,” Carnaggio said. “We can capture them and match them with jobs in the area.”
The Perryman area southwest of Aberdeen, zoned for industrial and office use, is a likely location for new firms related to the base, and would thus need better road access, Steere said.
The consulting firm also recommended replacing the existing railroad station ? which gets MARC and Amtrak service ? with a multimodal hub for drivers, train commuters and buses with pedestrian access to the base, Steere said.
PRE-BRAC PROJECTS
Not every new development project owes its existence to BRAC, however. Efforts to revitalize the Route 40 corridor have already brought the county new office parks, residential developments and retail.
“Harford County was already well on its way with a growing tech base,” said Tom Sadowski, executive vice president of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and former Harford County economic development director.
In Belcamp, a former shoe factory along Route 40 was demolished in 2005 to make way for the expanding 41-acre Water?s Edge Corporate Campus, a high-tech waterfront business center that already includes some of the county?s biggest employers, Carnaggio said.
Between Aberdeen and Havre de Grace, a 1960s-era strip mall is getting a $14 million face-lift to become Swan Creek Village Center, a swath of upscale retail with a salon, a spa and 22,000 square feet of office space, Carnaggio said.
Swan Creek touts its proximity to another of Harford?s pre-BRAC projects: The Residences at Bulle Rock, a 1,100-acre development including 2,100 new homes, a golf course and office park. While Bulle Rock was initially part of a large infusion of luxury homes into the area, “they?ve evolved into being just in the nick of time for BRAC,” said Havre de Grace Planner Al Henry.
Other projects include a new hotel near Ripken Stadium aimed at capturing tourists and families drawn to baseball events, and a restoration of the Tidewater marina store and offices in Havre de Grace, which had been flooded and ruined by Hurricane Isabel, Henry said.
