On March 31, 2021, the Department of Economic Development helped lead a Mayor & Board Workshop discussion on a new City development concept, CORE: Community Opportunities for Reinvestment and Enhancement.
WHAT PROMPTED THE CONCEPT
The City of Frederick has gathered requests from residents and stakeholders to address community needs and issues through countless emails, workshops, community engagements, and personal conversations. Over the years many of these needs revolve around reoccurring areas concerning housing attainability, human services, recreation, and public safety. The CORE proposal aims to address some of these needs in a creative, timely, and cost-effective way.
WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE
The City holds numerous surplus and underutilized properties. Additionally, there several privately owned properties which the City has pursued redevelopment partnerships. These assets can be used to accommodate or help finance the construction of community facilities.
A NEW APPROACH
The cost and complexity of meeting these community needs through traditional capital improvement programs may be beyond the fiscal and multi-discipline capacities of the City. However, there is an opportunity to utilize an alternative method of financing and project delivery. This method, called a master developer agreement, involves the City partnering with the private sector. The combined area of underutilized public and private land could provide sites for both the public needs and still yield substantial amounts of private reinvestment. The overarching goal of this proposal is to create and providing future housing, jobs, community services, and recreational opportunities through the redevelopment of underutilized City and private property, paid for largely by the private sector thus speeding delivery and reducing the City’s cost of delivering sought-after community needs. A master developer agreement model has been used by many neighboring jurisdictions in Maryland and the region.
OPPORTUNITIES AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS
A rough preliminary analysis on the urban land assets was conducted to understand what potential community facilities could be achieved with these properties relevant to housing affordability, human services, recreation, and public safety. Potential reinvestments and enhancements related to housing affordability, human services, recreation, and public safety that may be accommodated on the available land may include new housing units attainable to a wide spectrum of families, enhanced human services facilities, enhanced parks and youth amenities, 24-hour downtown public restroom facilities, a downtown grocery or marketplace, a multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility, and the replacement of an aging police headquarters. Furthermore, a study of the possible positive economic impacts resulting from complementary private investments was conducted.
WHAT’S NEXT
Based on the workshop discussions and input from the Board of Alderman, pursuing any variation of the CORE program will first require identification and consensus of new facility priorities and determination of excess/underutilized land. The timing of such discussions has not been determined yet but stay tuned for more updates.