Enhancing Ellicott City: Introducing Resiliency to a Damaged Community

Abstract

The historic Main Street area of Ellicott City has suffered massive hardships over the last several years, with two devastating floods causing considerable damage to the vibrant small business community. The county has already begun implementing their flood mitigation development plan which features a tunnel system to divert water from Main Street. While this solves some of the flooding issues, a redesign of the area is crucial to the restoration of the once prosperous community. With small businesses struggling, bringing more people into Ellicott City is important for its vitality. Currently, Main Street is seen as a destination, rather than a living space, even though it contains many of the amenities needed to foster a commercially vibrant and resilient neighborhood. Through tactical urbanism, there are many opportunities to infuse the city with new community spaces, higher density housing, and sustainable interventions, with the goal of creating an economically resilient community.