Julian Jones set to make history as first elected Black Baltimore County executive. Growth is on the agenda.

Julian Jones will shimmy down the slide. He will grip the steering wheel of the $300,000 McLaren. He’ll march in the parade, dance at the victory party, run toward the fire, command the microphone and pull the unsuspecting audience member in for a selfie.

Jones, the first Black man set to be elected Baltimore County executive, is not going to be a fade-into-the-background leader. It’s not how he’s lived his life.

The 63-year-old longtime council member wants to address Baltimore County’s affordability crisis and work with developers to provide more housing and promote responsible growth to reduce the population decline.

“When you call, you will get an answer,” he told the crowd at his victory speech. “And when the work gets difficult, you can trust that I will pursue, I will persist, until I can deliver a return on the hope you have invested in me.”

The Woodstock Democrat has long been a barrier-breaker. He was the first Black lieutenant, captain, battalion chief and division chief in the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, where he spent much of his career. He was the first person elected chair of the Baltimore County Council three times during his 12-year run.

Jones’ hands-on approach to governance is a stark contrast to his predecessor, Kathy Klausmeier, who has scarcely held a press conference during her two-year term. Klausmeier was appointed by the council to fill Johnny Olszewski’s seat after he was elected to Congress in late 2024. The 76-year-old former state senator has rarely given interviews. She frequently appears only briefly at events to deliver short, scripted remarks.

Jones, on the other hand, lives off-script. He once compared overcrowded schools to Disneyland — because everyone wants to be there — and questioned why the county needed to protect farmland because most people get their produce from the grocery store.

Jones trounced his Republican rival, Pat Dyer, winning in a year that favored Democrats nationwide. He spent nearly $2 million to win, much of it on besting three Democratic rivals in a bruising primary.

Prioritizing responsible growth

It costs more to live in Baltimore County than ever.

More renters were evicted in the county than in any other jurisdiction in the 2025 fiscal year. The county’s median rent is about $1,700 per month, according to the most recent U.S. Census data — lower than in neighboring counties, but higher than what most tenants can comfortably afford.

Rent has climbed nearly 8% in the past decade. And in May, The Banner reported that Baltimore County — which has an agreement with the federal government to provide more housing — has struggled to add 1,000 affordable homes over the last decade. A December 2025 report commissioned by the county found the jurisdiction was short at least 19,000 homes.

Jones “had a very clear message that was very different than his opponents, especially around growth,” said Karson Kamenetz, who won a seat representing Pikesville on the County Council. “He won the election pretty handily. I think he has a mandate, and I think he’s going to act like it, absolutely.”

An example of Jones’ stamp on the county, Kamenetz said, is what’s known as the “Triple Crown” in Owings Mills: Metro Centre, Foundry Row, and Mill Station. Jones worked with David S. Brown Enterprises to create the county’s first transit-oriented community. It includes a new Baltimore County Public Library branch and an outpost of the Community College of Baltimore County, along with offices, residences and retail space.

In October 2025, Jones championed a tax break for Brown’s Metro Centre and the Security Square Mall development. The legislation allows for $16.5 million over 30 years in exchange for setting aside 10% of units for affordable housing.

He worked with Kimco Realty Inc. to turn the derelict Owings Mills Mall into Mill Station, an open-air shopping center. Foundry Row, the old Solo Cup manufacturing plant, is now a 900,000-square-foot mixed-use development with a Wegmans.

During her tenure, Klausmeier championed a program to overhaul the county’s outdated and inefficient permitting process. Spokesperson Dakarai Turner said that Klausmeier allocated $5 million in the 2027 budget to create new housing units. But there remains a dearth of affordable housing, and developers complain of continued bureaucratic backlogs.

Steve Whalen, a Catonsville developer, said he’s looking forward to leadership that doesn’t consider “developer” a dirty word.

“We are damn short on housing, and Baltimore County developers are going elsewhere — to places they know they can get a plan approved,” said Whalen, who cited projects that his colleagues are mounting in Utah and the Carolinas, where they face fewer bureaucratic hurdles.

Jones, Whalen said, had only limited ability to help as a councilman; in the top job, he’ll have more flexibility.

Addressing development concerns

Whalen cautions that anyone who assumes Jones will listen only to developers doesn’t know him.

After all, he said, Jones has won several elections. Developers contribute funds to campaigns — including to Jones — but they don’t actually have that many votes.

Campaign finance records show the top three contributors to Jones’ campaign were real estate law firm Smith Gildea & Schmidt, commercial real estate agent Robert Latshaw Jr. and land use and zoning attorney Robert Hoffman.

In total, they have donated over $11,000 to Jones since 2023.

Conservationists are concerned that a Jones administration could breach the Urban-Rural Demarcation Line, which restricts two-thirds of the land in Baltimore County to limited zoning. The line was established more than 50 years ago to protect the water supply for more than 1 million city and county residents. Voters approved a charter amendment requiring a supermajority on the council for any changes to the URDL. But a younger and more diverse council that is more in tune with housing pressures could find the six needed votes.

Renee Hamidi, executive director of the Valleys Planning Council, a land-use preservation group, said leaders don’t have to dig deep to realize that building outside the URDL is not cost-effective and creates more problems. Plenty of opportunities abound in the closer-in neighborhoods that have sewer and water.

“I don’t think anyone, including Julian Jones, would say, ‘let’s mess up the county’s water supply,’” she said.

Robin Campbell remains concerned that housing concerns will override whether schools will have enough capacity to accommodate new units.

Campbell, who serves on a committee to advise the county on school overcrowding, said other counties, including Anne Arundel and Howard, require developers to pay impact fees that pay for schools.

Baltimore County has been reluctant to do that, he said. When it has tried, it built in too many exceptions to be meaningful. The county did not collect a single impact fee in 2023 because nearly all of the 687 building permits issued were exempt, according to the Baltimore Sun. In 2022, the newspaper reported, it collected only $14,000 in fees — far short of the $6 million expected.

A new law passed in 2024 raised the fees and collects them earlier in the process, although it’s too early to judge its success.

Campbell said it has taken two years to conduct one meeting on the school overcrowding committee because the council members — including Jones — were slow to appoint members. Jones still has not appointed his designee.

“This was an election where developers will have a seat at the table,” Campbell said. “My concern is whether parents and teachers will have a seat, too.”