new dorm building, called Charles Commons, for Hopkins students. The project, completed in 2007, converted a stretch of rowhouses and small apartment buildings to the 600+ capacity dorm as well as multi-story condominiums, all of which contain ground-floor retail. The Barnes & Noble now serves both as the Johns Hopkins student bookstore and as a standard retail outlet for residents of North Baltimore City. The Benefits District The Charles Village Community Benefits District Management Authority (CVCBDMA) is a special taxing district, one of four in Baltimore, the others being the Midtown Benefits District in Mount Vernon, the Downtown Partnership and the Waterfront Partnership. The CVCBD's geographical boundaries include four neighborhoods in the northern part of the city: Charles Village, Harwood, Abell and Old Goucher. Property owners within the CVCBDMA pay 12 cents per $100 of assessed value over and above city taxes to support the supplemental sanitation and safety services provided by the District. The CVCBD was formed in 1994 through the efforts of the Charles Village Civic Association (CVCA), led by its then-president Ed Hargadon; the South Charles Village Business Association, led at the time by the managing partner of Whitman, Requardt & Associates, Tom Shafer; and the Greater Homewood Community Corporation (GHCC), whose executive director was former CVCA president Sandra Sparks. Shafer had been spurred into action by the 1992 murder of an employee in the company parking lot. He had pursued Benefits District legislation in the 1993 General Assembly without success, enjoying community support from GHCC but not from the CVCA. CVCA's decision to come on board in 1994 made it possible to pass the enabling legislation in the 1994 Maryland General Assembly, the City Council ordinance later that summer, and then a neighborhood referendum in October of that year. In the referendum, which was conducted using mail-in ballots by the Baltimore City Board of Elections, all registered voters and property owners were eligible to vote, and about 1,500 did so, and about two-thirds voted for the creation of the Benefits District. Prior to 2006, the CVCBDMA provided a wide range of services to the community allowable under the enabling legislation. In addition to supplemental sanitation and safety services (including a security patrol), these included housing code enforcement, low-interest loans for residential and commercial revitalization, Painted Ladies contests, facade improvement matching grants, neighborhood festivals, and security cameras. Other than supplemental safety and sanitation, most services and activities