Carroll County, a rural county on the outer edge of the Baltimore metro area, has faced increasing development pressure, yet has a strong desire to maintain its rural character and agricultural economy. In preparation for an upcoming Comprehensive Plan process, the County and its eight municipalities sought a housing study to generate and feed housing-specific data, trends, and community insights into the long-range plan.

Mosaic’s team took a creative approach to the community engagement work, opting for informal pop-ups at an array of events throughout the county, from carnivals and festivals to wine strolls and food truck gatherings. We engaged with hundreds of residents at these events and collected over 1,400 survey responses.

Community input suggested a surprising degree of openness to “missing middle” housing types and a preference for gentle density increases in the county’s municipalities. Mosaic worked with a group of stakeholders to prioritize a set of strategies to support the community’s housing goals and these cross-sector conversations sparked new partnerships among housing providers in the region. Inspired by the Housing Study, many of these stakeholders are continuing to meet as a working group to refine and incorporate the study’s strategies into the Comprehensive Plan.