As City officials work to craft & update the 2020 Comprehensive Plan, setting big ideas into motion for decades to come, smaller plans are playing out before us today. If you’ve ever walked to the end of Carroll Creek Linear Park, you’d notice it stops at East Patrick Street… Because of the plans unfolding today, soon the park will extend beyond East Patrick Street and continue north all the way to Monocacy Boulevard. This is in part due to the Matan Companies Renn Farm Planned Unit Development that will bring approximately 1,050 residential units and commercial development to the area of Carroll Creek along East Church Street extended where it meets Monocacy Boulevard. Matan Companies and the City of Frederick worked together to complete Carroll Creek Linear Park so it will horseshoes from Baker Park through downtown Frederick out to Monocacy Boulevard. These plans have been in the works due to past comprehensive planning.
Looking at the east side of Frederick, there is an natural progression eastward from Downtown to expand the market place and further connect the City’s center to the east side via residential and commercial infill and adaptive reuse development. East Street is humming more and more everyday with new businesses, expanding businesses and more new apartments than seen in decades!
Speaking of apartments… East of Market by The Duffie Companies is building its second phase on North East St. with 49 new apartments to come online next year. Plans are underway for the former Goodwill Industries building at 400 E. Church St. for 80-85 new apartments units to be built starting next year. Former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant at the top of N. East Street will deliver 84 luxury apartment units next spring. The former Visitation Academy on E. Church St. is too, being redeveloped into a mixture of residential and commercial uses with possibly 30+ multifamily units going in. Commercial projects at the 77 acres Schley Farm where E. Church St extended meets Schifferstadt Boulevard (across from Renn Farm) will soon be developed for light industrial and general commercial uses.
There are dozens more small and large plans unfolding across east Frederick as we speak and it’s important we as a community are aware of what’s coming as a result of market forces setting its sights on City of Frederick’s east side. It’s my opinion we take a proactive approach and work to shape what our future looks like. Market forces are difficult to stop, especially in a location like Frederick so close to the Washington DC and Baltimore Metropolitan Markets. Winter maybe coming… but the free hand of the market has already taken grip. Come get involved and help your community grow responsibly.
Sincerely,
Chris Kline Jr