Protecting the Jones Falls Valley from Future Industrial uses

In August, we asked you to share opposition to plans to relocate the Sisson Street Convenience Center to the Jones Falls Valley.

As a result of your advocacy, the Sisson Street Task Force was formed, and Bikemore was asked to join to advise on traffic safety and represent the interests of bicyclists and pedestrians.

In a November task force meeting, Bikemore Executive Director Jed Weeks motioned to remove the Falls Road site from consideration, and the task force unanimously voted in favor of that motion.

While we expect the mayor to accept the recommendations of the task force, this vote was only advisory. And even if the city never planned to relocate to the Falls Road location, there was still a huge risk: the sites are zoned industrial and owned by Potts & Callahan. In theory, nothing could prevent them from selling or leasing the property to another industrial use, including a private waste facility.

Today, Seawall Development announced that they are under contract on 2801 and 2701 Falls Road, both of the active Potts & Callahan industrial sites.

If their purchase is successful, Seawall Development has committed to advocates and neighbors, including Bikemore, Blue Water Baltimore, Friends of the Jones Falls, and the Greater Remington Improvement Association that they will prevent industrial uses on these sites, and instead work collaboratively with us to re-imagine both sites to meet the desires of Baltimoreans to see the Jones Falls Valley realized as a world-class linear park, flanked by walkable, mixed use development in Remington.

Challenges to protecting these sites remain. The financial viability of this sale is likely predicated on the ability to re-develop the existing Sisson Street Convenience Center, as connectivity between Remington and the Jones Falls Valley between the two sites would only be possible through that re-development. The industrial zoning is still in place, and a comprehensive rezoning of both the Falls Road and Sisson Street sites to allow appropriate human scale redevelopment (and restrict uses like big box stores and parking lots from the Sisson Street sites) would likely be necessary.

If the Sisson Street Task Force moves toward Option 2, the phased closure of Sisson Street Convenience Center, Bikemore will advocate for the report to include these recommendations.

If realized, these efforts would take the largest remaining industrial uses in the lower Jones Falls Valley off the table permanently, protect the site from a potential future convenience center, eliminate dumping and runoff concerns from the existing Sisson Street facility, and facilitate a much stronger connection between communities and the Jones Falls Valley.

Seawall Development will be hosting public visioning sessions for Baltimoreans to share what they’d like to see these sites become, and we will share that information as it becomes available.

Keep the Jones Falls Valley Safe for Everyone

A map of the proposed relocation site with the floodplain overlay

Baltimore City is proposing relocating the Sisson Street Transfer Station to the Jones Falls Valley. There are numerous concerns around this proposal from adjacent neighborhood residents, stakeholder groups like Friends of the Jones Falls, and environmental advocates concerned about the overlap with the floodplain.

At Bikemore, we believe the Jones Falls Valley can and should be realized as a world-class linear park. We don't believe relocation of a waste transfer facility fits into that vision.

But if the city is insistent on relocating the facility despite the conflict with this vision and community concerns, the corridor must be safe for people of all ages and abilities walking and biking. Safe access for these users must increase.

In fact, that's a vision the Mayor's Office and Baltimore City Department of Transportation has long promised adjacent communities, a promise they have not made good on. Now is the time to make good on that promise, regardless of the outcome of the relocation proposal.

Below is a letter to send to your elected officials. It focuses on the bare minimum safety improvements required for a walking and biking corridor to safely exist with relocation.

To be clear, we think the proposed relocation site is a bad one. So if you have opinions on the relocation proposal itself, please customize the letter to include them.

ACTION ALERT: Greenway Meeting - Email the Mayor and Attend!

Next Thursday, August 22nd at 6:00pm Baltimore City Department of Transportation is hosting a meeting to share updated planning efforts for the Druid Hill Park to Gwynns Falls Leakin Park section of the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network.

Roughly a year ago, the now-departed Deputy Director and Chief of Policy of Baltimore City Department of Transportation shared that the department's plan was to simply sign the North Avenue dedicated bus lane as the biking "trail" component for this section of the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network.

Since that time, we are unaware of any efforts to revise that plan.

The city-adopted Baltimore Green Network Plan and Separated Bike Lane Network Plan define the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network as a fully separated shared use pathway. A proposal utilizing a dedicated bus lane would be contrary to adopted city plans and policy.

We hope the Mayor's office and Baltimore City Department of Transportation are not seriously considering this proposal. We're asking you to do two things:

Attend the Meeting Thursday, August 22nd at 6:00pm
The Center for Urban Families
2201 N Monroe Street Baltimore, MD 21217
an online option will be available that night at this link.

Send an email to the Mayor and Department of Transportation
Remind them that city adopted plans and policies require the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network be constructed as a fully separated shared use pathway.

Recent polling conducted by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance--polling that oversampled geographies along the proposed trail--shows broad support for the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network vision. Only 4% of city residents are opposed. The Mayor and other pro-trails and complete streets candidates won their elections.

There's no excuse for a weak trail plan. 

Next Thursday, we hope to see a plan that reflects this mandate: a plan that connects destinations like Gwynns Falls Leakin Park, Druid Hill Park, Cahill Recreation Center, Coppin State, and Mondawmin together with a fully separated, shared use pathway along which residents can safely walk, bike, and roll.

ACTION ALERT: Greenway Trails Network Meetings

Greenway Trails Network Northern Segment community engagement in Druid Hill Park in 2016

Virtual meetings to discuss the Northern Segments of the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network are being held March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.

Please register to attend by clicking here.

The Northern Segments of the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network would create a new trail connection between the Gwynns Falls Trail, Jones Falls Trail, and Herring Run Trail, allowing people to safely and accessibly walk, bike, and roll between Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, Druid Hill Park, Wyman Park, Lake Montebello, and Herring Run Park.

The Northern Segments are the largest unconstructed gap of the full 35 mile Baltimore Greenway Trails Network, which when completed will connect a majority of neighborhoods and nearly every large city park, transit hub, cultural institution, hospital, and university to one another through a walking, biking, and rolling trail.

Bikemore began conducting community outreach around the Northern Segments of the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network in 2016, meeting residents through our Mobile Bike Shop and other programming in partnership with community associations and residents. We have consistently heard a desire for safe and accessible trail connections along the corridor.

You can learn more about the full project by clicking here.

Like any project that has the potential to reclaim or repurpose space from motor vehicles, the idea of a safe trail connection along Gwynns Falls Parkway and 33rd Street faces opposition.

It's important that you show up and make your voice heard.

Our people are our greatest resource: Reflection from Ethan Abbott

Ethan (right) and Molly at our 5th Annual Cranksgiving in 2019

Today, we’re sharing a story from Ethan Abbott, who is the Project Manager of Baltimore Greenway Trails Network at the Rails to Trails Conservancy. We wanted to take this chance to share how our connections to partners in the community make our work possible.

The more I live and work in Baltimore, the more I realize just how important your resources are. Working in Baltimore often means living and dying by your ability to leverage your resources to the best of your ability. When I talk about resources, I’m referring to one thing and one thing only – other people. It’s all about who you know and who you can count on, whether it’s city residents, community groups, volunteers, or other local nonprofits. Without these relationships, our work isn’t possible.

I started working at Rails-to-Trails in March 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. Not the easiest thing to do during a quarantine, especially when your work involves community outreach, maintaining a coalition of invested stakeholders, and creating new partner relationships. Still, I wasn’t too bothered by this, because I knew that I already had relationships with a plethora of people in Baltimore, which helped me move with more finesse - this included Bikemore.

Working with Bikemore was easy because we knew each other through my work at Baltimore City Recreation & Parks - we were simply friends working in a new capacity. We hit the ground running with our collaborative efforts. Last November, Clarissa, Jed, and I began discussing the different ways that we could capitalize on the momentum and the groundswell of support in this Southeast corridor of the Baltimore Greenway, while still being cognizant of the COVID-19. As we thought about potential programs, our conversations were filled with uncertainties like, “Can we have a programming event around this? Maybe a socially distant guided bike tour? Do social distancing guidelines still count if we’re going to be outdoors?”

In the end, we safely hosted two VIP bike tours last November that showcased the progress along the eastern corridor of the Baltimore Greenway, and pushed our local leaders to action. Local community and business leaders, Maryland State Delegates, and Baltimore City Council members joined us on these rides. Bikemore, through their relationship with Lime, brought e-bikes for the guests to use at no additional cost. This year, we continued our joint programming through community group rides in South Baltimore along the Gwynns Falls Trail, a group ride along the Jones Falls Trail with Blue Water Baltimore, and hikes in Herring Run Park with Friends of Herring Run Parks and Impact Hub. Some of these were existing partners, and some were newly formed relationships, but all critical to helping us push forward our mission.  

I also want to highlight how pivotal these relationships can be even when you’re not directly involved in the work that your partners are doing. Rails-to-Trails wasn’t involved in the Lake2Lake project and traffic-calming installation at 33rd & Hillen, but we’re grateful for the groundwork it lays for the larger connection that we advocate for with the Baltimore Greenway, which builds upon this concept as it aims to connect the city’s prominent park systems together. The work done by Baltimore City’s Department of Transportation, Black People Ride Bikes, Graham Projects, and Bikemore is a tremendous accomplishment and will serve as a model for Rails-to-Trails as we continue to engage local communities and work with community partners.  

Throughout the past two challenging years, these partnerships have been what make my work possible. It’s essential that we cherish our people - whether that’s individuals, nonprofits, businesses - and recognize what they bring to the table and what we’re able to learn from them.  

Rails-to-Trails can’t keep advocating for the Baltimore Greenway without continual support from our coalition of partners like Bikemore. Bikemore can’t continue to be the transportation advocates they are today without the continual support and collaboration of organizations with similar or overlapping goals.

If there’s one takeaway, let it be this: None of this work is done in a vacuum. None of this work can be done in a vacuum, and more importantly, none of this work can be done without you - the people. Remember just how powerful of a resource a person can be, and I implore you to take this mindset to heart if you haven’t already. 

Today, I’m asking you to show your support for our work and start a donation today - even $5 a month allows Bikemore to keep advocating alongside us and host programming where Rails to Trails can bring the vision of the Baltimore Greenway to neighborhoods around the city.

By Ethan Abbott

This form will make a donation to Bikemore in Action, our 501(c)(4); these funds are unrestricted and can be used for advocacy. To make a charitable donation, click here.