Elkridge and Glen Burnie Are About to Look Different, and Both Got Approved in the Same Month
"Nothing ever actually gets built around here."
I hear that a lot. Usually about a plan somebody announced years ago that is still a field.
So this one is worth paying attention to. In the same month, two places around Baltimore got past the announcement stage. Not a study. Not a proposal. Signed paperwork, with money and land attached.
One is in Elkridge. One is in Glen Burnie. If you drive through either, they are going to look different in a few years.
Elkridge is getting a 70,000 square foot community center
This is the one I would actually put on a calendar.
The building holds a community center and a 50 plus center in roughly 70,000 square feet. There is a Howard County police satellite station going in it too. Groundbreaking was described as coming weeks, with the whole thing done around the end of 2028, maybe early 2029.
Elkridge has been a place people drive through on the way to somewhere else for a long time. A building that size changes what a Saturday looks like there.
There is a high school going in at Troy Park too
On July 29, the county council voted to hand roughly 48.635 acres at Troy Park to the Board of Education for a future high school. It would be number 14 in Howard County.
Here is the detail I liked. There is a deed restriction on the land. If it is not used for a public school, it goes back to the county. Not to whoever wants to build something else there.
The same vote endorsed Elkridge as a sustainable community, which is the state designation that pulls in planning money.
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The Girl Scout camp thing is the part nobody mentions
This is my favorite piece of the whole story, and it is buried in the paperwork.
Program Open Space money was tied up in the Troy Park land. That is state money meant to protect land, so you cannot just take a piece of it and build. The county had to protect an equivalent 48 acres somewhere else to balance it out.
How did they pull that off? They bought Camp Ilchester from the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. Plus some old Washington Road properties and a parcel on Lawyers Hill.
So a high school in Elkridge exists partly because a summer camp changed hands. That is how land actually works around here, and almost nobody sees it happen.
Glen Burnie is getting a walkable district at the light rail stop
Different county, different kind of news.
On July 2, Anne Arundel announced that the Cromwell light rail station got the state transit-oriented development designation. The state transportation department and the Maryland Sustainable Growth Subcabinet both approved it, and it came out of the Region 1 Plan adopted back in May.
If your eyes glaze over at "transit-oriented development designation," fair. Here is what it actually is.
It is the state agreeing to point money at the blocks around that light rail stop. A $5 million a year capital grant. Tax increment financing. Priority access to state revitalization programs. Federal infrastructure help. And coordination on connections to the B&A Trail, which is the part I care about most.
That last one matters if you ride. The B&A is already one of the best things in the county. Tying it into a station area with actual destinations around it is a real upgrade to a Saturday.
What that area is supposed to become
Cromwell now sits in the same program as Odenton, Annapolis Junction, and Pike & Rose up in North Bethesda.
Pike & Rose is the useful comparison, because most people have been there. It is a transit district that actually got built and that people go to on purpose. Whether Glen Burnie gets anything like that is a completely open question, but that is the model.
County Executive Steuart Pittman said the designation should help curb sprawl and transform the area around the transit with housing, businesses, and safe walkability. Councilwoman Allison Pickard called it a chance to reimagine the area as a walkable, mixed use destination.
I want to be straight with you about those quotes. They are goals, not deliverables. The announcement did not even say how many acres the district covers, which is the kind of missing detail I notice.
So hold it loosely. But the money is real, and the designation is real, and neither of those was true in April.
One is delivered, one is a plan
That is the honest difference between these two.
Elkridge has land conveyed, a deed restriction, a groundbreaking, and a completion date. You can go stand where the community center is going and it will be there.
Glen Burnie has a designation and a funding stream aimed at an area whose boundaries were not announced. That could turn into something great. It could also take twelve years.
Both are worth knowing about. They are just different things.
Where I would go look
If you want to see either of these before they change, now is the time.
Drive Troy Park in Elkridge and see what the land looks like as a field. Ride the B&A Trail down toward the Cromwell station and pay attention to what is around it right now. In a few years you will be glad you have the before picture in your head.
That is the fun part of living somewhere while it changes. You get to remember what it used to be.
What is going into the Elkridge Community Center?
Roughly 70,000 square feet holding a community center, a 50 plus center, and a Howard County police satellite station. Groundbreaking was described as coming weeks, with completion around the end of 2028 or early 2029.
Where is the new Elkridge high school going?
On land at Troy Park, roughly 48.635 acres conveyed to the Board of Education. It would be high school number 14 in Howard County.
What does the Cromwell station designation actually mean?
It is a state transit-oriented development designation. It opens up a $5 million annual state capital grant, tax increment financing, priority access to state revitalization programs, and coordination on connections to the B&A Trail.
What is Camp Ilchester and why did the county buy it?
It was a Girl Scouts of Central Maryland property. Because Program Open Space money was tied up in the Troy Park land, the county had to protect an equivalent 48 acres somewhere else. Buying Camp Ilchester was part of how they balanced that.
If you like this kind of thing
I keep an eye on what is actually getting approved around here, not just what gets announced. If you want the next one when it happens, get on the list below.
No pressure either way.
- Mike
More of the Elkridge and Glen Burnie area
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Mike Myslinski, REALTOR® — Kelly + Co Realty
I grew up in the Hereford Zone and still live here with my wife and three kids. I cover seven Maryland counties plus York and Lancaster in PA, and I make these videos so you can figure out where you fit before you ever get in the car. More about me · Zillow reviews