Charrette devises plan for ‘Walkable Towson’

A major suburban center near Baltimore will likely become much more congenial for pedestrians, thanks to a six-day charrette sponsored by Baltimore County. The charrette, led by Stuart Sirota of TND Planning Group, produced a plan that calls for redesigning a hazardous roundabout, converting one-way streets and roads to two-way traffic, and connecting a large, existing shopping mall to the downtown section of Towson, Maryland.
Towson, an unincorporated community of 51,000, about two miles north of the Baltimore City line, was initially expected to be the focus of a pedestrian and traffic study simply from a transportation standpoint. “We talked them into doing a ‘Walkable Towson’ plan,” says Sirota, who lives near Towson. “Once the county saw the importance of reframing the project in this light, it changed the whole nature of the plan,” with land use and urban design becoming key elements for achieving walkability.
The county’s planners frequently use charrettes. The one in Towson involved a number of new urbanists, including not only Sirota but also Rick Hall of Hall Planning & Engineering (HPE) in Tallahassee and Geoffrey Ferrell of Ferrell Madden Associates in Washington, DC.
The charrette provided the first opportunity for a large-scale roll-out of HPE’s “walkability index,” Sirota says. “We first did an assessment of the walkability of the downtown grid,” he explains. “We sent 20 or 25 county staff people out in the field with clipboards, measuring wheels, and radar guns. Every segment  of every street was given a score, with 100 the highest rating. We used GIS to translate the results into a color-coded map, from red to green. Some academics have come up with extremely complicated systems. This is simple.” (See walkability article on the next page.)
The HPE walkability index assigns scores based on 10 criteria: non-peak-hour free-flow speed (in mph, measured with a speed gun); street width at each pedestrian crossing; presence of on-street parking (percentage of the block face along which parking is provided); sidewalk width; pedestrian connectivity (distance between street intersections or mid-block crossings); presence and quality of pedestrian features; street enclosure (ratio of building height to street width); land-use mix; façade design (number of doors and façade character per block face); and transit and/or bicycle features (bus stops, bike racks, etc.).

Repairing a roundabout
“Towson has the first dual-lane modern roundabout in the US, from 1992,” Sirota says. “It has two long, fast straightaways and not enough deflection, so pedestrians don’t feel comfortable.” The charrette generated a plan for redesigning it, making it rounder, slower, and easier for motorists to enter and exit. Drivers will tend to travel at less than 20 mph after the redesign, according to Hall. Pedestrian amenities such as crosswalks, islands, and wider sidewalks will further help to make pedestrians feel more comfortable.
One resident was quoted in the Towson Times as predicting that the changes will aggravate traffic congestion. Sirota assured the public that drivers will take other routes to avoid the congestion. Whether some of the redirected traffic will go through residential areas remains a concern for some of the neighbors.
Public parks and gathering spaces will be targeted for improvements, to accommodate festivals and outdoor events.  
The plan envisions construction of a major new mixed-use building by decking over a surface parking lot that sits one story below street level between the roundabout and the mall, Towson Town Center. General Growth Properties, the mall owner, has already started converting another side of the mall into a collection of street-facing shops and restaurants. “We’re trying to create a seamless connection between the mall and downtown Towson,” Sirota observes. More than 1,000 apartments and condominium units are under construction within a quarter-mile.
Raymond Heil,  revitalization manager for the county’s Office of Community Conservation, says the county looks favorably on recommendations from the charrette, such as reducing travel lanes on York Road — a state highway — from four to two and installing on-street parking on both sides. The county would also like to see the two principal cross-streets converted to two-way traffic.
“All of this is continent on endorsement by the State Highway Administration, which owns the road,” Heil points out. Whether highway officials will approve the changes is not yet known, but Heil said there is support not only from county government but also from nongovernmental organizations. So there’s considerable optimism that the plan will be implemented.
Heil says the charrette built upon recommendations from a  2006 study conducted by an American Institute of Architects Urban Design Assistance Team.