Redevelopment helps solve city’s blight problem

Downtown Hagerstown’s pivotal role as the Hub City of the Tri-State region in Western Central Maryland eroded throughout the mid-to-late 20th century as railroad and manufacturing enterprises either departed or scaled back significantly.

New development moved away from downtown to the suburban fringes, and, by the 1980s, Hagerstown’s downtown retail core had decentralized in Washington County.

Downtown residential areas were dominated by rental properties and low-income residents, and many of the historic buildings that defined the city’s character were deteriorating and vacant.

In 1992, the city adopted a redevelopment ordinance that enabled the mayor and city council to initiate redevelopment activities in the core area of downtown.

A year later, a downtown master plan was adopted with an overall goal of implementing projects to continue the revitalization of down-town as the social economic and cultural heart of the city and region.

But, the community’s efforts to improve the downtown image as an attractive location for new businesses and residents were hampered by the “blighting” influence cast by the northeast quadrant of the public square.

A vacant parcel at the corner, known as “the hole in the square,” had been a cleared and unimproved lot since the city acquired it in the early 1980s.

The buildings on either side of the hole were deteriorating, vacant and unoccupiable.

Mayor Steven Sager and the city council launched their most significant blight-eradication project with the acquisition of the five vacant buildings in the northeast quadrant of the square.

In the first phase of redevelopment, the city acted as the developer of the four buildings north of the hole, which, in addition to a parcel on the east side, were acquired with $852,000 from the general fund. CDBG funds were used to reimburse the general fund for the acquisition cost of these slum and blight properties in Redevelopment Area I.

The project, known as the Elizabeth Hager Center and 12-16 Public Square, is nearing completion. The building facades–one art deco and the three Victorian have been restored to original or historically appropriate conditions. In a ripple effect, a local architect has expressed his desire to purchase the hole and the remaining deteriorating buildings in the northeast quadrant and rehabilitate an adjoining building.

Through the redevelopment project, the mayor and city council have advanced the public’s appreciation for Hagerstown’s architectural heritage and have rehabilitated a formerly blighted area in a prominent downtown location.