The Scott administration’s plan to close a key section of Light Street to assist a developer, initially proposed to start as early as November, is now unlikely to move ahead this fall.
This is a welcome development for city residents and business owners who weren’t looking forward to seeing parts of Light Street close permanently, especially in the months leading up to the year-end holidays.
One reason that the road closure likely won’t happen this fall is the time it will take to pass Baltimore City Council legislation that must be approved and signed into law before the city can close any part of Light Street.
On Sept. 28, at the request of the Scott administration, City Council President Zeke Cohen introduced Bill 26-0256, which would condemn and close portions of Light, Pratt and Calvert streets near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Before the full council can take a final vote on the legislation, the city is required to hold two public hearings – one by a council committee and one by the Planning Commission — and neither one has been scheduled yet.
The portion of Light Street that would be closed is the five-lane Light Street-to-Calvert Street “spur” that northbound drivers use to get to Calvert Street or Pratt Street from Light Street.
The curving roadway separates the Harborplace pavilions at Pratt and Light streets from McKeldin Square, the one-acre open space created after Baltimore’s McKeldin Fountain was demolished 10 years ago. The spur was created to streamline the flow of traffic at the intersection of Pratt and Light streets.
Closing the spur for private development
MCB Real Estate, the owner of the Harborplace pavilions at Light and Pratt streets, is seeking to gain control of the Light Street roadbed and make it part of the footprint for a $900 million mixed-use development it has proposed to build where the pavilions now stand. The city would retain ownership of the land and lease it to MCB. Construction is expected to take five years or more.
Gaining control of the roadbed and McKeldin Square would give MCB 4.5 acres to develop, compared to the 3.2 acres occupied by the Harborplace pavilions. MCB’s proposed development includes two residential towers containing 900 apartments, offices, shops, restaurants and open space.
If the road spur is closed as spelled out in the council bill, the number of northbound lanes on Light Street would be reduced where the spur begins and drivers would have to make a right turn at Pratt Street in order to get to Calvert Street or other points east.
In conjunction with the road closure, traffic planners have suggested realigning Light Street, which is currently one-way southbound north of Pratt Street, so it becomes a two-way street between Pratt and Baltimore streets. That would give drivers heading north on Light Street the option of continuing north past Pratt Street and then turning right on Baltimore Street if they want to reach Calvert Street.
Residents of Federal Hill and other areas of south Baltimore have raised questions about the proposed road closure, warning it will create a bottleneck at Pratt and Light streets and slow down travel times between downtown Baltimore and south Baltimore. They’ve also asked what traffic studies have been conducted and how eliminating the road spur will affect the response times of emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances. Questions such as these are likely to come up at the two public hearings on the bill.
Downtown Rise!
The proposed road closure is part of the master plan for Mayor Brandon Scott’s Downtown Rise! initiative. A city planner told members of the Baltimore Tourism Association in May that fencing needed to block off the Light Street-to-Calvert Street spur could go up as early as November and suggested that the tourism officials start thinking about how the closure might affect their organizations. “I believe it’s in November,” said city planner Caitlin Audette. “That’s when all the fences will go up.”
A spokesperson for the planning department later contradicted Audette, saying a specific timetable for the road closure had not been determined and that the November time frame was the goal of the developer.
“It is the intent of the developer that it will close in November,” agency spokesperson Jasmine Johnson said in an email message, “however that won’t be confirmed until permit review is complete.”
The November time frame wasn’t a certainty, Johnson said, because city officials have been reviewing permits and designs, including Maintenance of Traffic plans.
“Once the plan is finalized, reviewed and approved, the City will be able to share the temporary and permanent street conditions along with projected timelines for construction,” Johnson said in her email message. “As part of the legal process of closing a street, a street closure ordinance is also required prior to issuance of the permit to perform the actual closure.”
Other factors potentially affecting the street closing timetable range from the onset of winter weather to major events near the Inner Harbor, such as home football games and the annual German Christmas Village marketplace that’s traditionally set up on the West Shore of the Inner Harbor between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
City officials warned earlier this year that the Christmas Village may have to be relocated if MCB begins work in the fourth quarter of 2026 on Phase One of its Harborplace redevelopment project, but MCB has told merchants that its timetable has been pushed back and the two pavilions will stay open until the end of the year.
German American Marketing Inc., producers of the annual market, received permission from the city in March to hold its event in Baltimore for four more Christmas seasons — in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.
“The parties acknowledge that West Shore Park may be impacted by the Harborplace redevelopment, currently slated to begin as early as fall 2026,” Baltimore’s Real Estate Department wrote in March to the city’s Board of Estimates. “The City retains the right to relocate the Licensee to an alternative location at any time throughout the term to accommodate these activities.”
Public notice requirements
The final reason that Light Street likely won’t be closed in November involves the two public hearings that the city is required to hold on the road closure, to give citizens an opportunity to express their views.
Because of the city’s public notice requirements and other considerations related to scheduling two public hearings on Bill 26-0256, officials say, it would be difficult to hold them both before the end of the year and get the bill signed into law so actual sitework can begin.
To complicate matters since the May meeting, the city currently has no permanent director of its Department of Transportation (DOT), the agency that oversees changes such as road closures and traffic realignment.
In August, Scott announced that the Baltimore’s DOT director, Veronica Perry, would be stepping down and that her last day would be Oct. 1. He named Berke Attila, director of Baltimore’s Department of General Services, to serve as interim director of DOT while the city searches for a permanent replacement for Perry. A permanent replacement has not been named.
On Sept. 21, a group of citizens filed a lawsuit to block MCB’s plan to tear down the Harborplace pavilions and execute its development plans. An affiliate of MCB Real Estate and the Mayor and City Council were named as defendants in a 31-page complaint filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. The Mayor’s Office has declined to comment on the suit. An MCB spokesperson responded by saying the plaintiffs value “nostalgia for a few” more than “progress for all” and vowing to move ahead with their plans. The court has not disclosed which judge will hear the case or scheduled a hearing date.
The current time frame
Now that Council Bill 26-0256 has been introduced, the legislation has been referred to the council’s Land Use and Transportation Committee, chaired by council member Ryan Dorsey. As part of its review process, the committee will hold a public hearing on the bill at City Hall. A date for the Land Use and Transportation Committee hearing has not been set.
Before Dorsey’s committee can hold a hearing, the Planning Commission must hold a public hearing on the bill. The next Planning Commission hearing is scheduled for Oct. 8, but Bill 26-0256 is not on the agenda. After that, the commission is scheduled to meet on Oct. 19. An agenda for that hearing has not been made public.
Dorsey, the council committee chair, said he can’t schedule a hearing by his committee until the Planning Commission holds its hearing. That’s why a hearing date for Bill 26-0256 by the Land Use and Transportation Committee has not been set.
Given the city’s requirement to provide advance notice of hearing dates, the earliest that the council committee hearing could be held is in November – the month that the tourism officials were told in May that fencing might go up to block off the Light Street spur.
The Planning Commission hearing will be held on the eighth floor of the Charles L. Benton Jr. municipal building at 417 E. Fayette St. Once it’s scheduled, the date will be posted on the city’s website, www.baltimorecity.gov.
