Nineteen months after the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) sought proposals from groups interested in developing the Sisson Street Sanitation Yard and Citizen Drop-Off Center property in Remington, city officials are moving ahead with plans to sell it.
At the Baltimore City Council meeting on Monday, legislation was introduced that would authorize Mayor Brandon Scott and the council to sell the city-owned parcels at 2840 and 2842 Sisson Street, also known as the Sisson Street Citizen Convenience Center or ‘The Dump,’ on the western edge of Remington.
The bill, sponsored by Council President Zeke Cohen on behalf of the Scott administration, is a sign that city officials have received an acceptable proposal for private development of the city-owned, 5.6-acre parcel and are now working to sell it to make way for the proposed development. Any sale also would need approval from the city’s five-member Board of Estimates.
The drop-off center occupies most of the land bounded by Sisson Street on the east, 28th Street on the south, the Jones Falls Expressway on the west and 29th Street on the north. For years it has been a location for city residents to bring bulk trash items. The sale ordinance, No. 25-0094, states that the properties are “no longer needed for public use.”
The bill does not identify the potential buyers or say how much they would pay for the land. City officials have not made any official announcements about awarding the land to a developer since the deadline for proposals passed or released any plans to show what sort of replacement is proposed.
The likely purchaser is Seawall Development, a company responsible for numerous projects completed in and planned for Remington. In response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the BDC on Jan. 12, 2024, Seawall submitted a bid to build a commercial center anchored by a grocery store in place of the drop-off center. The deadline for responses was Feb. 9, 2024.
Seawall’s bid marked the second time the company had submitted a proposal to redevelop the Sisson Street property. In 2018, Seawall made an unsolicited offer to replace the drop-off center with a mixed-use development, and that prompted the city to seek competing bids. But city leaders ultimately didn’t select a developer at that time – in part because Seawall’s proposal fell through the cracks after former mayor Catherine Pugh was sent to prison and her replacement, Bernard C. “Jack” Young, had other priorities, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It got caught up in [former mayor] Catherine Pugh going to jail and then [former mayor Bernard C.] Jack Young didn’t focus on it at all,” Seawall co-founder and partner Thibault Manekin told a Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA) committee in 2024.
“Pretty cool grocery announcement’
The drop-off center parcel is directly across Sisson Street from land where Seawall has proposed a mixed-use, multi-building development called Sisson East, containing apartments, shops, restaurants and parking. Manekin has talked about his vision for the drop-off center property at GRIA meetings in order to get that organization’s support for his project.
The RFP from the BDC contained a clause requiring that the “selected” bidder agree that “it will not solicit press coverage or answer unsolicited questions about its development program from print, radio, television, social media or electronic media until it has secured an Exclusive Negotiating Privilege with the BDC.”
Clauses such as this are part of the reason that the BDC, a quasi-public agency, has a reputation for being secretive and non-transparent with city residents. Agency representatives have refused to say whether Seawall or any other developer has been granted an Exclusive Negotiating Privilege for the Sisson Street parcel, and the Board of Estimates has not had on its agenda a request to approve a land disposition agreement for the site. Technically, Seawall representatives aren’t violating BDC’s secrecy requirements if they provide information about their plans before submitting a proposal.
For more than a year, Manekin has been telling GRIA members that he would like to use the drop-off center property to bring in a full-service grocery store and other merchants to serve Remington and the surrounding area.
“The real priority on that site is to put a grocery store” in, he said in a 2024 meeting of the organization’s land use committee, shortly before the BDC’s bid deadline. “That’s something that we’ve been pushing really hard on. We’ve had a number of conversations with local, national groups and can’t really start in earnest until awarded that site.”
During a meeting of GRIA’s land use committee this past May, Manekin said he hoped to be able to make an announcement soon about which grocery store operator Seawall would bring to Remington, if awarded the land. He said he wants it to be a full-service grocery store rather than one with limited offerings.
“We think we’re pretty close on a pretty cool grocery announcement” for the Sisson Street property, he said. “We’ve still got some heavy lifts to go but I think our focus has been on a larger grocery store rather than a micro grocery store.”
Manekin apologized for not saying more.
“I hate having to be, like, kind of vague and shady. And I realize fully that I’ve done all of that when describing the west side of Sisson Street,” he said. “I would love to be able to say more and hopefully can really soon.”
Relocating the Sisson Street facility
In order to free up the Sisson Street parcel for sale and redevelopment, city officials have been working to find land nearby to relocate the drop-off center. The effort picked up speed after Calvin Young was named last spring to be Scott’s Chief of Staff and former Department of Public Works director Khalid Zaied was named to be the city’s Deputy Mayor for Operations.
On Aug. 11, representatives from the Mayor’s Office held a community meeting and discussed plans for moving the facility to 2801 Falls Road, property that the Potts and Callahan construction company uses as a storage yard for vehicles and equipment. Potts and Callahan’s services include bulk excavation, grading, paving, site utility, demolition, trucking and equipment rental.
Officials discussed how the relocated drop-off center would work in terms of access for the public and improved facilities for employees. They indicated that the city plans to lease the property from the owner, rather than purchasing it. A copy of the slides they presented is here.
The bill drafted to authorize sale of the Sisson Street property was referred to the council’s Land Use and Transportation committee. A date for a committee hearing has not been announced.
According to materials presented at the Aug. 11 community meeting, city officials are aiming to have the full council consider the sale ordinance on second reader on Sept. 29 and then bring it up for a final vote on Oct. 20. Council member Ryan Dorsey is chair of the Land Use and Transportation Committee.
‘Don’t Trash the Falls’
The city’s plan to move the drop-off center to 2801 Falls Road has drawn criticism from individuals and community groups. Leaders of the Hampden Community Council have urged members to “inform your City Council person of your opinions” about the plan. A volunteer organization called Friends of the Jones Falls (thejonesfalls.org) has launched a campaign called ‘Don’t Trash the Falls.’ Several of its members were present at the council meeting on Monday to bear witness to the proceedings. Information about their campaign is here.
Opponents have listed a number of reasons for objecting to the city’s plans for moving the drop-off facility to 2801 Falls Road. They say:
- It’s inconsistent with a long-range vision to make thatstretch of the Jones Falls Valley more of a civic amenity and attraction, with nature trails, jogging paths and expanded grounds for the Baltimore Streetcar Museum at 1901 Falls Road – a linear park near the center of the city. Friends of the Jones Falls has been working on a strategic plan to promote sustainable development of the 18-mile-long Jones Falls and its watershed, with Falls Road as its gateway from the south, and members say moving the drop-off center to 2801 Falls Road would conflict with their efforts and detract from the atmospheric, nature-friendly setting they want to create.
- The plan calls for closing a portion of Falls Road to vehicular traffic. Officials indicated on Aug. 11 that the stretch of Falls Road between Mount Vernon Mill No. 1 at 3000 Falls Road and the 29th Street Bridge would have to be closed or restricted to one-way traffic if the drop-off center moves to the Potts and Callahan parcel. While some welcome the idea of restricting a portion of Falls Road to car traffic, many others say that winding stretch of Falls Road is part of a route that connects Hampden and Woodberry with midtown Baltimore and that it should remain open to vehicles. They also note that along with being convenient, it exposes users to a picturesque slice of nature close to the heart of downtown.
- There are better options: One possibility, opponents say, is 2500 Huntingdon Avenue, the land where a developer once proposed a shopping center called 25th Street Station that would have been anchored by a branch of Walmart. Other suggestions: a former railroad yard at 400 West North Avenue and land off West Cold Spring Lane that was once part of architect Moshe Safdie’s never fully-realized Coldspring New Town development.
- The proposed drop-off center site is close to a 100-year floodplain and falls within a 500-year floodplain. In July of 2023, when the city’s Department of Real Estate, the Department of Public Works and the Mayor’s Office of Infrastructure Development sought proposals from property owners who have at least seven acres where the city could replace the Sisson Street facility, their solicitation stated that “no portion of the site can be in a floodplain.” The Request for Proposals also stated that in order to be considered, “sites must be in close proximity to the existing Sisson Street transfer station” and that “potential sites must be zoned and currently used as industrial property.” In addition, “access to and close proximity to Interstate 83 is essential,” “access routes must accommodate commercial/heavy equipment/truck traffic,” the city would prefer at least two access points to the site, and “the site cannot be adjacent to a residential community,” the offering stated.
‘Incompatible use’
The city’s relocation plan is antithetical to everything the Friends of the Jones Falls stands for, especially the long-term goal of restoring the Jones Falls Valley as an environmental amenity and recreational resource with clean water flowing into Baltimore’s harbor, president Sandy Sparks said in a statement after the Aug. 11 meeting.
The idea of closing part of Falls Road to vehicular traffic is particularly disturbing, Sparks said, because it’s at odds with ongoing initiatives to enhance connectivity to the Jones Falls Valley.
“A consequential decision to relocate such an incompatible use on Falls Road, a Maryland Scenic Byway, should be delayed and studied to not forever squander a landmark legacy for Baltimore,” she said. “The [Friends of the Jones Falls] encourages the City to re-examine further options with the public, suspending focus on the 2801 Falls Road property until more sustainable and convenient sites in the central Jones Falls/North Avenue corridor are fully investigated and considered.”
Other drop-off locations
Even though many people refer to the Sisson Street operation as “The Dump,” officials note that it’s not technically the same as the Quarantine Road landfill in south Baltimore, where trash remains after it’s brought in. The Sisson Street facility is called a transfer station, officials say, because the bulk trash items taken there are transferred to other locations every day.
Some residents have argued that the Sisson Street facility could be closed and not replaced, because the city has other drop-off locations. In addition to the sanitation yard at 6100 Quarantine Road, they include the Bowleys Lane Residential Recycling Drop-off Center at 6101 Bowleys Lane and the Northwest Transfer Station at 5030 Reisterstown Road.
But city officials have pledged to find a new location to replace the one on Sisson Street, not just shut it down. During an Aug. 6 meeting with GRIA members, the mayor’s Chief of Staff, Calvin Young, pledged that the city won’t close the Sisson Street drop-off center until a replacement facility is up and running.
“The mayor’s directive,” he said, “has been that there needs to be a facility that is open the entire time.”
“Clauses such as this are part of the reason that the BDC, a quasi-public agency, has a reputation for being secretive and non-transparent with city residents.” Not speaking to the Press and a long history of making plans before finding out how citizens feel about something, is business as usual for the BDC.
Study the Jones Falls Valley Plan :
https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/items/31610a1f-d7e3-4786-a417-ccf3d1de4c94
Don’t see a City Dump in the Jines Falls stream valley watershed. The Mayor & City Council need to work a little harder in planning the location of the new dump.
Why do we need a new transfer station? It is not a dump, it is close to our neighborhoods, and why lease a new location, wouldn’t there be enough cash to buy the next area, NOT in a Flood Zone! I bike the Jones Falls regularly. I see too much litter and trash in the Jones Falls as it is now. We do have an illegal dumping problem in Baltimore. Is it a crime that we can afford to ignore? I think not.
Referring to the Sisson Street transfer station as a dump (even in parentheses) is more than a bit disingenuous. It is a lot filled with dumpsters that, when full, are moved to the city landfill and emptied there. Calling it a “Dump” displays your bias against this effort. Just report the news. Opinions should be labeled as such.