Around Maryland

Nearly nine years after former Gov. Larry Hogan shuttered the old Baltimore City Detention Center, a new centerpiece facility for the city’s pretrial jail population is poised to rise from its ashes. But it’s going to cost you. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which has run the city’s jail system for decades, is pushing ahead with ambitious plans for the Baltimore Therapeutic Treatment Center — a sort of hybrid jail, hospital and mental health and substance use treatment facility for people facing criminal charges.

Lutherville Station, a now-abandoned shopping center in Baltimore County, has become ground zero for a prickly debate about who gets to say what kind of development happens in a community. Adjacent to a light rail stop, and formerly the home of a Caldor’s, a Borders, a warehouse store for Best Buy, and other now-defunct establishments, Lutherville Station sits mostly vacant. But a developer wants to change that. Mark Renbaum, principal of MLR Partners, has proposed converting the site into a mixed-use development, with new retail, office space, and, most controversially, up to 450 rental apartments.

Candidates for the Anne Arundel Board of Education discussed their views on book banning, student arrest rates and critical race theory and other topics at a forum Tuesday in Annapolis. The Caucus of African American Leaders’ Education Committee hosted 11 of the 19 candidates who filed for the Nov. 5 election. The candidates were given an opportunity to articulate their vision for and commitment to addressing the pressing issues facing the county’s increasingly diverse student body.

Lyft drivers and users in downtown Baltimore are getting a big lift from a new and growing program. St. Frances Academy, a historic Catholic high school in midtown Baltimore, last year became the home of 100 Lyft electric vehicles, complete with 17 high-speed chargers. The changes, made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, are part of an effort not only to cut down on vehicle admissions but to expand electric vehicles and charging into low-income areas. “We’re celebrating growth, we’re celebrating infrastructure and we’re celebrating progress on the journey of electrifying Maryland,” Maryland Secretary of the Environment Serena Mcilwain said when the chargers were unveiled at Saint Frances Academy late last year.

Every day when Rev. Walter Sadler is about to leave work at Southern Bethany Baptist Church in Burtonsville, he looks out the front window to make sure nobody is lurking in the parking lot before he heads out to his car. After facing vandalism, theft of a van, and threats targeted at the historically Black church over the past few years, he and his parishioners don’t always feel safe. They lock the doors immediately after services, and he won’t let parishioners put up a “Black Lives Matter” sign in the church yard because he’s concerned it could make the congregation a target.

Baltimore City and Baltimore County were among three Maryland jurisdictions to lose population in 2023, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Net losses in domestic migration — more people left for another U.S. jurisdiction than moved from one — drove the declines. Each jurisdiction’s decrease from July 2022 to July 2033 was not as drastic as the prior year’s, though. Baltimore City declined 0.7% to 565,239 residents and Baltimore County fell 0.2% to 844,703. Garrett County in Western Maryland was the other Maryland jurisdiction whose estimated population fell.

The Harford County Council voted Tuesday to approve modifications to the county’s Agricultural Land Preservation program, which include reducing the number of acres required to be admitted into the program and setting a timeline for landowner applications to be accepted. Council President Patrick Vincenti and council members Tony Giordano, Aaron Penman, Dion Guthrie and Jacob Bennett voted to approve the updates; council member Jessica Boyle-Tsottles was absent.

Some things in life are certain: death, taxes and roadwork on Interstate 695. The next phase of an ongoing, multiyear construction project that aims to ease congestion and improve safety on I-695, the Baltimore Beltway, begins Monday, the State Highway Administration announced in a press release. The agency is warning drivers to expect “significant off-peak delays” along the northeast section of the Beltway as crews tackle shoulder work along a roughly 1½-mile section between White Marsh Boulevard and Lillian Holt Drive.

Carroll County school officials are weighing a ban on cellphones in the classroom. Students in the school district are allowed to have their phones with them and are permitted to use them at certain times throughout the day. School board members discussed at Wednesday’s meeting a proposed cellphone ban for students, saying it is a distraction to their education. “I don’t want to say we can’t have cell phones but we need to have a certain time,” Carroll County Public Schools board member Marsha Herbert said.