Bill to sell Sisson Street trash facility – missing from online City Council agenda – will be introduced tonight
A bill to sell the property will come before the City Council tonight, according to a print-out of the meeting’s agenda.
Above: Current Sisson Street trash dropoff site (shown in red) and proposed site by Jones Falls (orange).
Throughout the weekend and today, residents, community leaders and Jones Falls Valley advocates have been wondering:
Is the Scott administration introducing a controversial bill to sell the Sisson Street trash transfer and dropoff center at tonight’s 5 p.m. City Council meeting?
If so, some activists have vowed to go down to City Hall to make their displeasure known.
However, nowhere on the Council’s online draft agenda, issued on Friday, could the bill be found.
At this afternoon’s Council luncheon at City Hall, paper copies of the agenda revealed on page five that “Sale of Properties – 2840 and 2842 Sisson Street” (Bill 94-0094) – will, in fact, be introduced tonight.
MISSING AND FOUND: The online draft agenda for the August 18, 2025 City Council meeting does not reference the sale of the Sisson Street properties. BELOW: A hard copy of the agenda, found at this afternoon’s Council luncheon at City Hall, includes the bill.
Without naming the site, Bill 25-0094 authorizes the “private or public sale” of the two street addresses that comprise 5.7 acres of public land. The Northwest Citizens Convenience Center, as it is formally known, is used to collect garbage, recyclables, old furniture, household hazardous waste and other material to be transferred for disposal elsewhere.
The properties “are no longer needed for public use,” the bill summary says.
But they have long been sought after by Thibault and Donald Manekin, co-founders of Seawall Development and prominent backers of the mayor. (The Brew has traced $7,500 in direct contributions to Scott’s 2024 re-election.)
The Remington real estate company wants to develop the Sisson Street block east of the trash site. Emails show that the Manekins have actively lobbied the city to sell them the two properties, which they could combine with another property for a larger development site.
“It’s going to move”
The bill is set to be assigned by Council President Zeke Cohen to the Land Use and Transportation Committee, which is chaired by Councilman Ryan Dorsey.
A public hearing on the measure is expected to take place quickly under the direction of the mayor’s office.
If the committee votes in favor of the bill, it will come back to the full Council for final passage.
In a brief exchange today, Councilwoman Odette Ramos, who represents the Remington community, said, “It’s going to move,” answering the question of whether the bill will, indeed, be formally introduced at the meeting.
Growing opposition to the sale – and the Scott’ administration’s effort to relocate the trash facility to Falls Road next to the Jones Falls bike and nature trail – are detailed here:
• Vision of a more inviting Jones Falls Trail collides with Scott administration’s trash plans (7/18/25)
• Rough reception as city proposes moving Sisson Street trash drop-off center to a site along the Jones Falls (8/13/25)