Dear Resident:

In 2001, the City of Mount Rainier requested assistance from the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) to prepare an urban renewal plan for the town center area. In June 2003, staff of the Maryland Department of Planning presented a proposed Mount Rainier Town Center Urban Renewal Plan to the Mount Rainier City Council.

A copy of the proposed Plan is attached. Also, copies are available a the Mount Rainier Public Library and some parts of the Plan are posted on the Friends of the Library Web Site at http://mtrainierfol.org/community/urban_renewal/index_html.

The purpose of the Plan is to give the City Government more tools to address the problems of blight and decay in the town center area (For more info on this point, see page 1 of the Plan). The proposed Plan is the result of nearly 2 years of work (study, meetings, and community outreach) that included residents, business members, Gateway CDC, city staff, and others (See list of participants on page 38 of the Plan).

A major focus of the Plan is to facilitate improvements to blighted and vacant commercial properties in the town center. However, another key focus of the Plan is to improve the livability of residential areas inside the Plan boundary. Improvements inside the Plan boundary should also have benefits for residential areas adjacent to the boundary.

The City Council has asked the Task Force to continue to provide information about the Plan. To that end, we are doing our best with volunteers and virtually no funding. We hope that the attached copy of the Plan is helpful to you. If you have further questions about the Plan, please contact either:

(1) Ms. LaVerne Gray, for the MDP planning team

Phone: 410-767-4490, or x4474

Email: lgray@mdp.state.md.us

(2) Ms. Michelle Sust, for the Task Force team

Phone: 301-699-5121

Email: msust@msn.com