Unsightly parcels near Fallston Crossing get cleaned up

Before

After

Well, the folks at Milton Ave. LLC in Belcamp were as good as their word. The owners of those two commercial properties that flank the entrance to the Fallston Crossing development on Route 1 cleaned them up, just like they said they would. Residents of the community of homes built on the site of the former Fallston General Hospital had been complaining about how the two vacant sites at the entrance to their neighborhood had become an overgrown, rock strewn eyesore, with some of the nearby car dealers using the rocks on the site to display their off-road vehicles. Initial stories written on the subject mentioned that the owners of those properties weren't in violation of any zoning laws. But later, Harford County Executive David Craig called on the owners to clean up the site. Within a week, they complied. Since I drive by there weekly, I took some before and after pictures. The before pictures were from Friday, Sept. 28. The after pictures were taken Friday, Oct. 5. Clearly the site has been tidied up. And yet, if I lived in one of those new homes where the residents have a "Yard of the Month" contest and a mini waterfall greets those who use its other entrance on Harford Road, I don't know that I'd call the aftermath lovely either. I understand that the owners of the property aren't violating any zoning laws by the way they've handled these parcels. And yet, perhaps since the zoning laws are currently undergoing a revamping, we might want to look at what kinds of rules we have when commercial properties abut residential areas. This kind of mixing of commercial and residential is generally highly valued by land planners looking to reduce sprawl. Seems like an easy fix to require owners of commercial properties so close to residential ones to make sure those properties look appealing and mix well. If they don't, homebuyers are likely to head for the nearest cul-de-sac community carved into a former farm field.
Before

After

Click here for previous BANV posts on Fallston Crossing.