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Some students who live off campus have recently been forced to look elsewhere for affordable housing.
Thirteen acres east of campus, known as Towson Manor Village, have been rezoned from 15 residential units per acre to 5.5 units per acre. Fifth District County Councilman Vince Gardina voted to down zone the area on Aug. 31 in response to community concerns of overcrowding and deteriorating properties.
Bill Matthews, a Towson graduate, owned 12 houses on Linden Terrace and Burke Avenue near York Road. Matthews divided the homes into apartments and rented to Towson students for roughly $300 a month.
“The kind of students that we got were middle-class students who were working their way through college and could not afford to live on campus,” Matthews said. “Sometimes they come from foreign countries.”
However, in August, with impending zoning changes, Matthews sold his properties to Bob Ward Companies, a Harford County-based development company.
Students who lived in Matthews’ homes were forced to relocate over the summer months.
The company originally planned to establish cluster homes or condos for businesspeople in Towson, but due to rezoning this may not be possible.
Linda Veach, president of Ward Companies, said the company has no plans to rent the houses and it is unknown how the area will be developed.
“We tried to work with the community but that was unsuccessful because every time we agreed to something, they changed their mind,” Veach said.
Gardina said he plans to develop a community plan for the area that would include “high-end residential uses … that would improve the neighborhood.”
The plan would be a public process, which may take up to six months to get approved and enacted, Gardina said.
“Under the current zoning … the highest density you could do would be townhouses,” he said. “It could include just townhouses. I don’t think we’ll go less than townhouse density because of the price of the land.”
Gardina said the zoning regulations could change again, but it would be at the discretion of the community.
Regardless of the type of development in Towson Manor, Gardina said there would not be an allowance for student housing in the area.
Towson Manor Village Community Association President Ed Kilcullen said residents were concerned with the homes that were being used as rental properties.
“No one wanted to live next door to a rental property,” he said. “The down zoning is an attempt to restore a more family-oriented community.”
About 30 percent of the community’s homes are rental properties and many of the single-family homes in the rezoned area date back to the early 20th century and are in need of significant repair.
“While the houses were historic, and we would have loved to see them restored to their original beauty … any historic significance has been stripped from the houses,” Kilcullen said. “The houses have been allowed to deteriorate and have been in violation of the county code for years. They just look really bad.”
Matthews said the down zoning is a big disadvantage for students, citing that some community members who complained about zoning issues were relatively new to the area and were aware they had moved into a college community.
“They chose to move into the community … they deliberately chose to move into a college community and have been unhappy ever since,” he said. “They’ve won unfortunately because the county councilman gave into them.”
In some cases, overcrowding in student homes was a problem. In Baltimore County there may not be more than two unrelated persons living together in a single residence.
“They’re only allowed to rent to two unrelated people and there will be five people living in the house,” Kilcullen said.
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