Howard County Executive Calvin Ball provided a progress report on the Ellicott City Safe and Sound Plan launched last December for Old Ellicott City’s ongoing recovery from recent flooding events. County Executive Ball detailed latest developments regarding acquisitions and Main Street restoration, flood mitigation projects, ensuring public safety, and continuing economic development progress and success.
To date, Howard County Government has acquired nine of the 10 buildings it planned to purchase on lower Main Street. Six of these buildings will now have portions preserved. Since February, all the buildings owned by the county have been fully cleaned out of debris. Additional work on the properties includes façade restoration, installation of new doors and shadow boxes, and other stabilization improvements.
The next step is partial removal of the sections of the buildings over the stream channel. To complete this and subsequent renovation of these buildings, the county needs to undergo a federal Section 106 process to assess the historical impacts.
The application for Section 106 process has been submitted and reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers and we are now in the process of responding to their comments. The first public hearing will be before the end of February and the Section 106 process is expected to be completed by the end of next year with demolitions and renovations following shortly thereafter.
For more information, visit www.howardcountymd.gov/News/ArticleID/1401/News020719.