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Coldstream Homestead Montebello

• Urban Renewal Plans for Baltimore City 

  • Coldstream Homestead Montebello  

• Neighborhood Information

  • Source: Live Baltimore

    • Coldstream Homestead Montebello (or CHUM) in East Baltimore borders Clifton Park. The neighborhood of wide rowhomes, many with front porches or sun porches and small yards, offers easy access to all the amenities offered in the nearby park. 

    • Nearby

      • Five playgrounds, swimming, basketball, baseball, football, soccer, tennis and an 18-hole golf course are all a short walk away! 

      • Public Transit

        • BWI Airport....30 minutes

        • Charles Center….15 minutes

        • Penn Station….10 minutes

        • Bike and Scooter Share

        • Rideshare

    • 52% Own

    • 48% Rent

  • Source: Wikipedia

  • Source: CHAP

    • Historical and Architectural Preservation

      • Coldstream Homestead Montebello - National Register of Historic Places 10/23/13 

Permitting

The permitting process seamed to take much longer than normal. After talking with the Northern District Planner, I found out that it was because every permit application had to go through an additional approval process in that neighborhood to help maintain the historical character. This was because they (the URP - Urban Renewal Plan) wanted to maintain the historic old brick porch front look of the neighborhood and make sure that it remained residential. In the past, my property was used as a liquor store on the main level and apartments upstairs. However, if a business has not been operational in the last 12 months, then it can no longer be used as a business unless you apply for a new permit and possible zoning variance. 

This is the message I got from the Permitting office. 

• Your application has been referred to the Dept. of Planning for review because the property address is within an Urban Renewal, Planned Unit Development (PUD), 

Multi-unit

I heard how hard it was to add convert a single family back to a multi-unit so I didn't want to risk it. However after talking to the Northern District Planner, she indicated that it might still be possible because  the goal of the URB was to maintain a historical residential neighborhood and a duplex was still residential. She said that it would be harder to convert a single family to a multifamily, but it the property was already split up, it may be possible to turn it back into a duplex.