A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday that developers can move forward with an affordable housing project near East Towson, overturning the county’s Board of Appeals decision to quash it.

The 56-unit, four-level Red Maple Place affordable housing project would span two lots between East Joppa Road and East Pennsylvania Avenue.

Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican whose district includes Towson, said he was “extremely disappointed by this decision.”

The homes at Red Maple Place would count toward the 1,000 affordable housing units in prosperous census tracts that Baltimore County must encourage developers to build over a period of 12 years, under a 2016 agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to correct decades of discrimination against Black families and people with disabilities. The county is providing a $2.1 million, 40-year loan for Red Maple Place.

Area residents have battled the county and Homes for America, the project’s developer, since the housing was approved in 2019, saying it’s environmentally unsuitable and another example of encroaching on a historically Black community in Baltimore County.

Read full article: Circuit Court judge allows Red Maple Place affordable housing project to proceed, overturning Baltimore County appeals board – Baltimore Sun