"Planners hope to give the city tools to support growth while preserving its character. They are calling for livelier street-level activity including retail stories on several main streets: Charles, Pratt, Baltimore, Eutaw and Howard. They are proposing a single downtown zoning designation that would permit high-density commercial and residential uses.
They also want to prevent buildings from being demolished to make way for parking lots. 'If someone tears a building down, they can green it while they wait to do a new building,' said Laurie Feinberg, division chief of comprehensive planning."
The city's zoning code hasn't been updated since 1971.
