With not even a word of discussion, on Monday night the council voted 14-1 to make room for sweeping changes at the city’s most famous waterfront.
Only Councilmember Ryan Dorsey (D-3) voted against legislation that will enable MCB Real Estate, a Baltimore-based development company led by city native P. David Bramble, to redevelop the Inner Harbor. Those include razing the Light and Pratt Street pavilions, reconfiguring those two streets, adding four buildings including mixed-use residential space with two-tiered apartment complexes of 32 and 25 stories.
The council passed two bills and a charter amendment, the latter of which will go before city voters in November.
Legislation passed on Monday eliminates the height restrictions for buildings on the waterfront.
Voters will get to decide if they will amend the charter to make way for the rest of the MCB’s development plans. Per the charter, the Inner Harbor area is considered a public park “for the benefit of this and future generations of the City of Baltimore.” The charter amendment passed by the council proposes expanding that footprint from 3.2 acres to 4.5 acres. Current plans achieve that by shrinking Pratt and Light streets and getting rid of the Calvert Street spur. That amendment would also allow residential housing and off-street parking to be built in that space.
MCB Real Estate says they came up with the designs after holding dozens of community meetings throughout every quadrant of the city– they even went as far as to advertise the hearings on the sides of buses. After the plans were revealed in October, Bramble and Councilmember Eric Costello, whose district includes the Inner Harbor, held a series of town halls.
There was only one official city hearing on the legislation. During that, Dorsey expressed concerns that the city would be “taking the rails off for private development” by passing legislation without a firm commitment of public funding or assurance that the plans put forward would actually be what goes into place.
“Renderings are always the best possible portrayal… but there’s so much room for what could possibly happen,” he said.
After Monday’s council hearing, President Nick Mosby pushed back on that, noting that the council could always set its own guardrails.
“If we need to pass legislation to claw back, we could do so,” said Mosby. “Legislation is something that constantly moves, it isn’t stagnant.”
MCB estimates the project will come in at close to one billion dollars; it needs about $500 million in private funding and another $400 million in public dollars. During that February council hearing, Caroline Hecker, an attorney representing MCB said that at that time, the company did not plan to ask Baltimore City to dip into its coffers. Hecker suggested that infrastructure improvements like the ones at the promenade are “expected” to be paid for by the federal government. There is no such commitment yet.
Governor Wes Moore has pledged $67 million in state funding for improvements of public spaces.
