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Hagerstown Choice Neighborhoods team to submit draft transformation plan to HUD next week, presenters say
Summary
Hagerstown officials and consultants said the draft transformation plan for the Choice Neighborhoods program will be submitted to HUD next week; plan outlines people, neighborhood and housing strategies for three target public‑housing sites and a neighborhood redevelopment framework.
Consultants and Hagerstown Housing Authority leaders told the council they will submit the draft Hagerstown Choice Neighborhoods transformation plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development next week.
“...we're preparing to submit the draft transformation plan to HUD next week. Really excited,” said Rachel, a project representative, as the WRT consulting team and Hagerstown Housing Authority staff updated the mayor and council on the plan and resident outreach.
The draft plan, presenters said, is organized around three pillars: people (education, workforce, health and resident services), neighborhood (public realm, amenities, safety and connectivity), and housing (replacement, mixed‑income development and homeownership opportunities). Hannah Clark, an urban planner with WRT, described the plan as “our road map for how this vision for the Choice Neighborhoods can be implemented.”
Scope and sites: the Choice plan targets three public‑housing sites in the study area — Douglas Court, Parkside Homes and Frederick Manor (places noted in the presentation) — and proposes mixed solutions including new construction, stacked townhomes and multifamily units. Presenters sketched a draft unit count: replacement of approximately 194 existing public‑housing units and an additional roughly 260 non‑subsidized units in the larger redevelopment footprint (numbers described by consultants as draft figures and subject to change).
Community input and timeline: presenter teams described recent resident workshops, a bus tour of Baltimore Choice Neighborhoods sites and ongoing work with community ambassadors. Rachel and Hannah said HUD had reacted enthusiastically to the program outline the city submitted in September and that the draft plan would set implementation goals and funding strategies. Sean Griffith, executive director of the Hagerstown Housing Authority, said several leverage strategies (non‑HUD financing) are being developed and that a Plan A/Plan B approach is intended if HUD funding priorities or national budget decisions change.
Council questions: council members asked whether the Choice program could survive proposed federal budget cuts; presenters said they would develop contingency (“Plan B”) financing approaches and stressed that some work — including targeted leverage projects such as the proposed Mueller Building redevelopment — would proceed using non‑HUD funds if necessary.
Next steps: presenters said they will deliver the full draft plan to council members and encouraged written feedback. The plan submission to HUD is imminent and will be followed by more detailed financing and phasing analysis for the proposed housing sites.
