Baltimore City Council committee recommends approval of Harborplace legislation

Story by Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun

A controversial plan to remake Baltimore's Harborplace moved a step closer to reality Tuesday night after winning a key City Council committee vote that paves the way for a mixed-use development with apartment and office buildings in place of aging retail pavilions.

The council's economic and community development committee voted to recommend approval of land-use legislation that will allow Baltimore-based MCB Development to move ahead in a process leading to a voter referendum on November's ballot.

The developer has proposed demolishing the twin 43-year-old waterfront shopping and dining pavilions that for decades have symbolized the Inner Harbor attraction and replacing them with four taller, mixed-use buildings. Those include a conjoined tower with around 900 apartments, several smaller buildings, a large new park, a two-tier promenade and realigned roadways.

Councilman Ryan Dorsey, a committee member, was the only dissenting vote on the seven-member panel, with the package of bills now moving ahead to the full council. Dorsey said he had little objection to the lifting of height restrictions and the addition of commercial and residential density that has sparked strong opposition.

But, Dorsey said, "the expanse between what has been presented to the public and what these bills will allow is vast. There's so much room for what could possibly happen."

The legislation includes amendments to city zoning, its urban renewal plan and the City Charter, which requires voter approval in November.

The council committee's vote followed several hours of testimony from both opponents and supporters with Committee Chairman Sharon Green Middleton often cutting speakers off at a designated two-minute mark.

MCB's proposal involves about $500 million of private investment and would need an estimated $400 million in public funds — about $300 million for parks and public spaces and $100 million for the roadwork — the developer has said.

The high-profile project has drawn scrutiny for its proposed density and removal of height limits, a road narrowing that could clog traffic and the inclusion of hundreds of apartments on the site. Many brought those concerns to the committee, urging members to slow the process down to avoid a plan that they believe would privatize the public Inner Harbor shoreline.

Several speakers called for a broader planning process to resolve issues such as the use of public park land, pedestrian circulation on the promenade and traffic flow through downtown.

David Benn, a Baltimore architect and urban designer for 40 years, showed renderings contrasting Harborplace pedestrians' current view of low-rise pavilions with one of large buildings looming over people. Benn argued the legislation could open the door to even more high rise buildings than those proposed.

He blamed Harborplace's decline in recent years in part to a lack of control over the buildings by city officials, a problem he said would persist under the proposal.

Michael Brassert, a Federal Hill resident and owner of a small business downtown, urged council members to think creatively to build up an area feeling the effects of crime, pandemic shutdowns, gross mismanagement and changes in the way people work and shop. In his native Manhattan, he said, Hudson River Park on the waterfront and the Highline helped transform neighborhoods.

"Sometimes Baltimore makes mistakes. Old Town Mall comes to mind," Brassert said. "I am sure that in just a few years we will look back at this Harborplace plan, if it is built, and realize that we had just made a $1 billion preventable, horrible mistake, because as a city, we had not done our due diligence. We went with the only option presented to us."

MCB struck a deal to acquire the mostly vacant pavilions out of receivership in April 2022. The pavilions have lost tenants and fallen into disrepair over the past decade, with many attributing the problems to what they saw as mismanagement by the previous, New York-based owner.

Bramble argues that only a densely populated project that mixes park space with commercial uses and housing is economically viable and will spark further growth downtown.