Baltimore Avenue from Pine Street to Watts Street Intersection
Mill Street from Baltimore Avenue East to the Borough Line
ORGANIZING THE CORRIDOR
The Baltimore Avenue Corridor, as defined in this study, is a relatively small but complex area composed of a diverse range of small town and natural environments. Much of this study deals with how Baltimore Avenue operates over its entire length, from its northern and southern gateways, to its core between Pine and Mill Streets. However, this corridor study must also address the localized issues that vary from place to place along the corridor, such as pedestrian crossing at the Givin Library, emergency service access from Fire Co. No.1, etc. The Baltimore Avenue Corridor has been broken into a series of sub‐areas. These sub‐areas extend along the Avenue from Route 34/94 Split at the Southern gateway to Watts Street at the Northern gateway and include Mill Street from the intersection with Baltimore Avenue extending east to the Borough line. Together, these
Mt. Holly Springs – Baltimore Avenue Corridor Study / Final Report
Page 7
sub‐areas form a framework for discussing the location‐specific recommendations that are found in the report. Each sub‐area has also been classified according to its land use context. A context area is an area of land that contains a unique combination of built and natural characteristics, which can include land uses, architectural styles, urban or rural form, building density, roadway design, topography, and other natural features. Each sub‐area has been classified according to a land use classification system developed jointly by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in the Smart Transportation Guidebook. This system includes seven context areas that range from least developed to the most developed: Rural, Suburban Neighborhood, Suburban Corridor, Suburban Center, Urban Neighborhood, Urban Center, and Urban Core.
Existing Land Use Conditions Understanding the surrounding land use context is essential to planning for the future of any improvement recommendations. Also, the planned, but not yet built projects play an important role in assessing future transportation recommendations. For example, the character of development surrounding a particular roadway can provide guidance as to who will need to use the road and how they will use it.
The Baltimore Avenue corridor has a variety of existing land uses from retail, office to industrial and residential. The purpose of the study was not to identify the exact square footage of every single building and use, but rather identify the general amount of germane and relevant items that impact the corridor study. The existing land uses in the Baltimore Avenue Corridor total approximately 124 buildings of retail, office, light‐industrial and residential type uses. There are approximately 54 business locations (32 on the west side of the Avenue and 22 on the east side) and 70+/‐ residential properties (36 on the west side and 34 on the east side). The uses are complemented by a total of 1,113 +/‐ parking spaces in the core of Mount Holly Springs. Of those, 155 +/‐ parking spaces are on‐street spaces (93 west side and 62 east side). There are also 958+/‐ off‐ street parking spaces (474 on the west side and 484 on the east side).
Page 8
Mt. Holly Springs – Baltimore Avenue Corridor Study / Final Report
Proposed Land Uses Planned for the Corridor The Baltimore Avenue Corridor has the potential, based upon traffic volumes, to be a popular place for niche retail and residential mixed use development. As such there are a variety of plans in various stages of reviews and approvals by private development entities in the corridor. They range from a restructured Sheetz Convenience Store to the “Old Anglers Lodge” project. While there are a number of retail projects it is surprising to see that there are no residential project proposals anywhere in the corridor. This is counterproductive to providing a vibrant avenue. No residential uses will further define the corridor as a vehicular corridor only. The total population of Mount Holly Springs is roughly 2,107 people. The population base is stable but cannot support alone the total retail square footage existing, or planned for the Corridor. Therefore a regional approach to marketing the Corridor is essential to its long‐term success. The Harrisburg‐Carlisle Metro Area totals 548,996+ persons. This is the target market for Mount Holly Springs. Mount Holly Springs has a mean household income of $39,906. By comparison the Pennsylvania Mean Household Income is $50,713.00. Clearly there is room for improvement to create stronger income potential in the borough. The general population have High School Degree or higher at 84.6% +; Bachelor Degree or higher at 8.7% + and 2.9%+ with Graduate Degrees. The majority of the population is considered a blue collar workforce. The mean travel time for residents between home and work is 26 minutes, which means most people leave the Borough in order to work. The Baltimore Avenue Corridor is diverse enough to include every context zone including rural and urban core areas. In practice, land uses do not always fit neatly into a defined context area and boundaries between these context areas may be difficult to pin down. When classifying sub‐areas, the project team chose the classification that most closely matches the existing and proposed land uses. This study uses the land use context of each sub‐area as an organizing framework for recommended improvements and the selection of roadway design values. For example, the issues encountered in suburban and urban centers typically differ from those found in suburban neighborhoods and corridors. A brief summary of proposed improvements for each of the sub‐areas is contained in Section 3: Recommendations / Implementation.
Mt. Holly Springs – Baltimore Avenue Corridor Study / Final Report
Page 9