Feb 26, 20240
City Council advances bills to pave the way for towers at Harborplace
With no debate and no remarks to explain their votes, lawmakers move Baltimore’s historic waterfront one step closer to an apartment-centric future.
What should come next for Baltimore's Harborplace, the waterfront park and plaza that was wildly successful after it opened in 1980, but whose two retail pavilions now stand largely vacant? The latest revival plan - which includes removing height restrictions, razing the pavilions and letting a developer replace them with two tall harborside apartment towers - has sparked intense debate. Will the 900 new luxury residential units at the water's edge revive the city's "crown jewel"? Or privatize and deaden a cherished public space? And what to make of the process whereby P. David Bramble was chosen - "secretly," Mayor Brandon Scott declared in public remarks - to be the developer for the project?