Anne Arundel County has moved closer to allowing Maryland to try to create a vibrant apartment community at the Cromwell light rail station in Glen Burnie.

With a unanimous vote Thursday, the County Council passed an amendment to rezone approximately 16 acres at the state-owned transit hub to allow up to 44 residences per acre.

This was the second time the measure was brought to a vote. The council voted it down 4-3 on April 21, with Democratic Councilman Pete Smith, who represents the district encompassing the station, expressing concern about a lack of community involvement.

After that vote, Maryland transportation and housing officials, who had said they would only invest in the property if it was rezoned, as well as County Executive Steuart Pittman, sought to convince Smith to reconsider. Smith, meanwhile, scrambled to talk with leaders in the Ferndale community surrounding the station about officials’ vision for the property.

“In uncertain times, this much is certain: Cromwell Station is a perfect spot for transit-oriented development. That has never been the issue,” Smith said Thursday, now urging his colleagues to vote for the amendment to rezone the property. “While I still have concerns about the speed of the land use changes over the last week, what gives me hope and hopefully the community some comfort, nothing will happen overnight. We will all have time to weigh in.”

Smith said he was able to bring the amendment to leaders of the Greater Ferndale Community Civic Association, whose membership voted Wednesday on whether to support the proposal.

“The results given to me were roughly half and half,” Smith said. “While they might not always agree with every decision that I make, even the half that didn’t necessarily want to move forward, what I am comforted with is they were involved and aware of what was going on before we made the decision.”

The amendment paves the way for the state to start the process of bringing transit-oriented development to Cromwell Station. State officials had told Smith they were prepared to begin the development process, which typically spans three to four years, in the fiscal year beginning in July — but only if the property was rezoned.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld welcomed the rezoning in a statement Thursday.

“The Council’s action enables MDOT to begin the process of delivering a meaningful Transit Oriented-Development that builds ridership in our transit system, grows our housing options, improves our economy, and makes good on the planned investments in transit in Governor Moore’s recently passed transportation budget,” Wiedefeld said. “We look forward to moving this forward and engaging all of the critical partners and stakeholders.

Under Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, the state has accelerated plans to redevelop parking lots next to its transportation hubs with apartments, shops and offices. Officials say such projects would reduce the state’s housing shortage, ease traffic by keeping cars off roads and bolster ridership of its underutilized mass transit trains.

The state is already in the process of developing its MARC station in Odenton with the county’s support. Transit-oriented development also features prominently in Anne Arundel County planning documents, which identified Cromwell Station as a promising site.

“If you go back into the plans that have been laid before us since about 1997, transit-oriented development has been targeted here,” said Councilwoman Allison Pickard, a Democrat who represents Glen Burnie.

Pickard originally moved the state-requested rezoning amendment when Smith passed on it. She implored her colleagues to vote in favor of it the first time and doubled down on her arguments Thursday.

“If you’re going to build housing near a transit station, that’s where your density will be,” Pickard said. “What you should really think about is how many people are getting off the road because they choose to take the light rail all the way to Baltimore to work.”

She celebrated the vote in an interview following Thursday’s meeting, describing it as an “exciting time for North County.” The Cromwell Station project, she said, aligns with the county’s effort to revitalize the Baltimore-Washington Boulevard corridor in Glen Burnie.

“Without that 24/7 activity of residential living, small businesses are flailing, and with an increase in residential, we’ll see that whole corridor come alive. It will be a vibrant community,” Pickard told The Banner.

She is leading efforts to reimagine the Glen Burnie Town Center, which is less than a mile from Cromwell Station. Eventual residents of a community at the light rail, she said, will be able to walk to the town center and “have an ice cream cone, a cup of coffee.”

The amendment would allow for up to 704 residences on the 16-acre property, but Pickard said most development projects in the county only reach about 70% of the maximum allowed because of environmental regulations and other oversight.

Smith said he and the community were relieved to find out that the state only wanted to rezone 16 acres, rather than the more than 200 acres it owns around Cromwell. Forty-four units per acre on the larger site would have equated to a “little city,” he said.

The community’s concern about Cromwell Station largely centers on crime and safety, Smith said. A “healthy conversation” with Pittman left him believing the county and state “can at least mitigate some of their concern.”

Councilwoman Julie Hummer, a Democrat who represents the western part of the county, said revitalizing the area would go a long way toward reducing crime.

“When you have positive development, small businesses and homes around the station, any public safety issues are going to be mitigated,” Hummer said. “I think we all know that some of our train stations right now look like big, empty parking lots that aren’t the most inviting places to be sometimes and so anything but that would be an improvement.”

A final vote on the comprehensive rezoning bill that includes Cromwell Station is set for Monday night.