Opponents of a controversial zoning bill who have enlisted land use lawyers, former city planners, and current and former councilmen to help make their case added a new voice this week: the pastor of a West Baltimore church.

“I stand before you as a representative of a faith community that has lived through decades of housing policies permitted by the city of Baltimore, many of which promised progress but delivered pain,” began the Rev. Milton Alexander Williams Jr., of Pennsylvania Avenue AME Zion Church.

Along with Councilmen Antonio Glover and Mark Conway and about a dozen residents, Williams participated in a press conference held at City Hall yesterday that was organized by the community leaders who have been opposing City Council Bill 25-0066.

The measure would upend nearly a century of zoning laws by eliminating the single-family home requirement in residential districts across the city.

Instead, most existing housing, including small rowhouses, could be reconfigured or replaced with up to four units without Zoning Board review or approval.

Presented as a housing affordability measure that would offer more housing options to current and new residents, the bill was sponsored by Councilmen Ryan Dorsey, Zac Blanchard and Paris Gray, and is backed by Mayor Brandon Scott and Council President Zeke Cohen.

Williams called the bill’s advocates “reckless” for pushing such changes without an equity study or detailed fiscal analysis.

“What we fear is that what is being framed as progress may actually serve developers, political ambitions and donor interests, while putting everyday residents at risk,” he said, faulting the measure for not capping rents or including other safeguards to prevent the destabilization of neighborhoods.

“As we speak, Baltimore City has more landlords than homeowners,” he continued. “This legislation exacerbates that problem. We believe our city can do better.”

Glover echoed that sentiment, arguing that the bill disrespects “legacy residents who have made so many sacrifices to build these communities that we live in today.”

“For someone to feel that they can come into these communities and do what the hell they want to do is unacceptable,” said Glover, who represents the Eastside’s 13th District.

Conway said the legislation addresses the city’s “significant need for housing,” but does so with a potentially harmful “a one-size-fits-all approach.”

“If one part of the city has the flu and another part of the city has cancer, should we treat the entire city with chemo?” asked Conway, who represents the northeast’s 4th District.

An influx of renters may not be sustainable in some neighborhoods, he argued.

“In a block that may have 10 homes that currently have 10 families, to suddenly turn around and have 40 families,” he said. “What does that mean to parking? To density, crime and so many different things?”

Community Blowback

The gathering was organized ahead of a Thursday meeting of the Council’s Land Use and Transportation Committee, where Chairman Ryan Dorsey plans a work session on Bill 25-0066, the only one still pending in the package of six density-promoting bills unveiled by the Scott administration in May.

The agenda for the session notes there will be “no public testimony,” a sore point for neighborhood leaders who say they have been shut out of the process.

• Councilman Ryan Dorsey’s handling of controversial zoning legislation is sparking protests (12/11/25)

Dorsey’s decision to disallow virtual testimony at the December 1 bill hearing prompted angry outbursts that day and later generated formal complaints by residents who said he had violated the Maryland Open Meetings Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Some residents called for Dorsey, the longtime champion of the bills, to be removed as committee chair by Council President Cohen.

But his only acknowledgement of the community blowback over the bill has been to invite select community members to two non-public “listening sessions” in City Hall where pizza was served and Cohen listened as residents sounded off about the measure.

In response, opponents are holding their own event tonight at 7 p.m., open to all – an online Town Hall on Bill 25-0066 titled, “What Balto City Council doesn’t want you to know.”

An online Town Hall will be held tonight (2/10) by opponents titled, “What Balto City Council doesn’t want you to know.”

An online petition against the bill with more than 1,100 signatures has the same feisty tone: “Baltimore neighbors’ voices are being silenced while investors gain power!”

“We are here today at a crossroads,” said Janet Allen, president of the Heritage Crossing Residents Association, who presided over the gathering.

By attracting outside investors, she predicted, the bill will “cause blight, strain aging utilities, erode neighborhood character and destabilize long-term home ownership.”

“The bill does not tackle the real reason why people have left, such as an educational system that does not meet the needs of our children, open air drug markets, high taxes and high water bills,” Allen added.

Addressing city leaders Allen expressed the group’s demand:

“Kill the bill and re-start the process the right way,” she said. “The right way is with the fully transparent comprehensive rezoning effort.”

“Abandoned our gold standard”

Attorney Nichole’ C. Gatewood, addressing media assembled in the Curran Room, took up that theme.

“The last substantial rezoning took four years – not eight months, not 10 months, four years – and brought every neighborhood together to have a seat at the table before things were done,” she said.

Gatewood was referring to a concern about the bill raised by the city’s own Law Department, that it could be vulnerable to a legal challenge because it makes changes that could arguably be construed as comprehensive rezoning, which has extensive public notice requirements.

Instead, lawmakers proposed the changes legislatively as a “text amendment.”

“We have abandoned our own gold standard,” she said. “It’s a historical standard, set by Transform Baltimore, that this administration is attempting to bypass.”

Gatewood also denounced council leadership for permitting Dorsey to disallow virtual testimony at the last bill hearing on December 1.

Deb O’Neill, a community leader from North Ridgely’s Delight who had hoped to provide testimony from home that day, attended yesterday’s press conference and was recognized by Gatewood.

“Persons like our beloved Miss O’Neill, who made her way here today, wanted her voice not to be suppressed,” Gatewood said. “That is the very essence of testimony suppression – the muting of the voices of the people of Baltimore City.”