The Baltimore County Office of Community Conservation has

The Baltimore County Office of Community Conservation has chosen a consultant team led by Rick Hall of Hall Planning and Engineering in Tallahassee and Stuart Sirota of TND Planning Group in Baltimore to prepare a walkability master plan and form-based code for Towson, seat of the predominantly suburban county of 754,000, which surrounds the city of Baltimore on three sides. A weeklong charrette is being planned for May and will include other new urbanists, such as Geoffrey Ferrell of Ferrell Madden Associates in Washington, DC. “Our approach stressed the importance of considering pedestrian-friendly land use and urban design in creating walkability and not just thinking about this from a transportation perspective,” Sirota said. “We also stressed the importance of codifying the recommendations with a form-based code.” Towson, with 52,000 inhabitants, is one of the largest unincorporated county seats in the US. It sits just north of Baltimore city.