The Baltimore Highlands Community Plan is a new guiding document for the Southeast Community Development Corporation, neighborhood residents, and partners like the Highlandtown Community Association. The plan was supported by a grant from the Enterprise Community Foundation and was co-created by the Neighborhood Design Center between fall 2020 and winter 2021 in partnership with Southeast CDC staff, residents, and community partners. This document describes the overall planning process, the history and existing conditions of the community, feedback from residents, and the strategies and actions recommended to meet community goals.
Baltimore Highlands residents and community members were engaged in a year-long planning process to learn about challenges, hopes, and dreams for the neighborhood. Activities included virtual stakeholder and community meetings, surveys administered online and by phone, events planned with schools and afterschool programs, sustained email communications, door-to-door canvassing, popup engagement at community gatherings, and regular advisory group meetings.
The COVID-19 pandemic made some outreach methods more difficult, but door-to-door canvassing and phone surveys provided safe opportunities for residents to participate in the process.
Baltimore Highlands is a small neighborhood north of Highlandtown, which was annexed into Baltimore City in 1918. Key assets for the neighborhood include the Highlandtown Village Shopping Center and Conkling Street Garden as well as the neighborhood’s proximity to the Highlandtown Arts District and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Today, Baltimore Highlands is growing and stands out as a majority Latino neighborhood in a city where Latinos are less than five percent of the overall population. Unfortunately, sanitation and safety issues in commercial areas, rising housing costs, and overcrowding in nearby Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School #237 are all significant challenges that negatively affect current residents.
The shared vision for Baltimore Highlands resulting from this planning process is organized around three goals:
To meet these goals, this document presents strategies and actions that can be completed by dedicated neighborhood partners within immediate and long-term time frames. While this remains a living document, subject to updates and input from stakeholders not available during the original planning process, the goals listed here reflect an agreed-upon vision for the future that can guide upcoming planning efforts.
Plan
View the accepted plan.
View the briefing slides presented to the Planning Commission on 11/17/2022.
View the plan recommendation slides presented to the Planning Commission on 1/12/2023.
View the Implementation Table slides (in English).
View the Implementation Table slides (in Spanish).
Contact molly@southeastcdc.org with any comments or questions about the plan.