North Beach Downtown Plan

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North Beach is located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It supports a resident population of around 2,000 but is largely a seasonal town and economy. The town has made many improvements over the years and hosts many summer visitors and programs a variety of well-attended festivals and events on its boardwalk. The downtown, however, contains many "holes" of under- and undeveloped land. The town owns several of the key properties and requested CPAT help with creating a plan for the downtown that enables all the town's goals to work together. The town seeks to encourage and enhance summertime tourism but also create a better year-round place for full-time residents.

The report provides an overview of policies adopted by the town, values expressed by the community, and existing conditions, data, and research that drove the team's plan. The team establishes a design framework, then builds upon it by adding content and specificity to create the conceptual downtown plan. The conceptual plan divides the downtown into three distinct districts — the downtown core, an active, compact and walkable commercial area serving as the heart of Downtown; the local merchants retail and arts district, an intimate fabric of small shops focused on the arts and local Maryland goods; and, the civic center, a concentration of primarily government and public service facilities. The team discusses the potential of specific downtown development projects, including a hotel conference center and a performing arts center. Additionally, the team highlights parking solutions, flooding issues, street improvements, public space enhancements, community promotion, and implementation strategies.

Meet the Team

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Team Leader

Robert J. Paternoster, FAICP

Robert Paternoster has managed public planning and community development agencies throughout his 45-year professional career. He was planning director for the City of Pittsburgh, director of planning and building for the City of Long Beach, California, and director of community development for the City of Sunnyvale, California. He is an adjunct professor in city planning at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Paternoster earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University and his master's in city planning from Harvard University. He is a former president of APA's California Chapter and a former member of the APA board. He was among the first 70 planners to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

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Team Member

Philip Franks, AICP, AIA

Philip Franks is vice president and CFO of Hurley Franks Associates in Philadelphia. Before that he was a principal for Kise, Franks, and Straw for 25 years. Franks specializes in architecture, urban design, and public infrastructure projects. His career spans over 40 years with more recent projects such as public outreach with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the World Trade Center site, an Access Study for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware Art Museum mediation, and the US 15 Smart Transportation Corridor Improvement Plan in Union County, Pennsylvania. Franks holds a Master of City Planning and Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Team Member

Wendy E. Moeller, AICP

Wendy Moeller is a principal and owner of Compass Point Planning, a planning and development firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has worked in the planning field since graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Urban Planning in 1996. Moeller has received a certificate of completion in form-based codes from the Form Based Codes Institute (FBCI). She has served as a project manager and planner for numerous planning, regulatory, and development projects throughout her career. Moeller is a regular speaker at local, state, regional, and national conferences and is active in the state and local section of APA's Ohio Chapter, where she currently serves as a member of the board of trustees. Moeller also serves on the board of the Signage Foundation.

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Team Member

Kannan Sankaran

Kannan Sankaran is a managing director of CBRE Hotels and PKF Consulting USA, a subsidiary of the CBRE Group, Inc. He heads the Washington, D.C., office. With more than 16 years of professional experience in the hospitality industry, he offers expertise in market and economic feasibility studies, strategic asset advisory assignments, acquisition and disposition due diligence, complex asset and business valuation assignments, impact analyses, litigation support, and development and operational planning. His consulting engagements include hotels, resorts, golf courses, marinas, conference/convention centers, and private schools (K-12). Kannan holds Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Tourism Administration degrees from The George Washington University's School of Business.

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Team Member

Sidney Wong, Ph.D.

Sidney Wong is a senior consultant with the World Bank and a senior advisor with Econsult Solution, Inc. He is a specialist in fiscal impact analysis, program evaluation and policy analysis. Wong has over 20 years of experience in planning practices, teaching and research. His doctoral dissertation on enterprise zone programs in California and the Mid-Atlantic region was named best planning dissertation by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. He's taught graduate courses in planning at the University of Pennsylvania and Morgan State University. Before his doctoral study, Wong served as a town planner in Hong Kong covering zoning, urban redevelopment, and infrastructural planning; as well as a consultant with the World Bank's Asian Technical Division. He served on the APA Maryland Chapter's executive committee between 2009 and 2013.

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