A developer’s plan to construct a 32-story apartment tower overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is on hold after residents questioned the proposed building’s height.
The project that’s now on hold is a high-rise planned for 301 South President Street in Little Italy, currently a surface parking lot. It’s one of two 32-story apartment buildings proposed for the Inner Harbor area, along with a tower designed to rise in the 300 block of Light Street as part of MCB Real Estate’s $500 million plan to redevelop Harborplace.
Baltimore’s Planning Commission was scheduled on Jan. 25 to consider City Council Bill 23-0472, legislation that would change zoning for the President Street parcel to permit a structure taller than the current height limit allows. But the item was taken off the commission’s agenda at the last minute, and the legislation didn’t get a hearing.
The parking lot is currently in the C-5-DE zoning district, which has a height limit of 125 feet or about 12 stories. The pending legislation, introduced by council member Zeke Cohen, would rezone the parcel to put it in the C-5-DC zoning district, a category with no height limit.
The legislation was introduced after a team led by developer Lou Madigan unveiled preliminary plans to construct a 32-story apartment tower on the property if city officials would waive the 125-foot height limit. The project has an estimated construction budget of more than $200 million, and plans call for 276 apartments with street-level commercial space and some on-site parking. The developers want approval to build a structure that’s 300 to 350 feet tall.
According to city planner Caitlin Audette, the planning commission wasn’t going to consider the specific proposal from Madigan but a general request to rezone the property without a specific proposal or developer in mind. A planning commission hearing is required before the bill can move on to the City Council for consideration.
The proposal for a 32-story building has drawn both support and opposition from the Little Italy community. Members of one group, The Original Little Italy Community Organization, or TOLICO, voted 18 to 0 to support the zoning change. But members of another group, the Little Italy Neighborhood Association (LINA), voted 32 to 20 to oppose a zoning change for the lot.
At several LINA meetings, members said they believe a 32-story building with 276 apartments would be out of scale with the area, would cast long shadows on houses to the east and would add to parking and traffic problems in the area. They said it would be inconsistent with the Transform Baltimore zoning code that went into effect in 2017 and vowed to protest the council bill when it comes up at public hearings.
Just before the commission’s Jan. 25 hearing, the planning department staff marked the Little Italy item “postponed” on its agenda. It also doesn’t appear on the agenda for the Planning Commission’s next meeting, on Feb. 8.
On Jan. 25, Cohen wrote a letter to members of the Little Italy Neighborhood Association, explaining the postponement.
“I have temporarily pulled the bill from the planning commission agenda,” he wrote. “While I firmly believe in smart development and urban density, I also believe that community must have a voice in shaping the process.”
Cohen said in his letter that leaders from the two neighborhood organizations met on Jan. 22 and “determined that allowing a zoning change with a height of 180 feet was an acceptable compromise to the current zoning, which allows for 125 feet. (By comparison, the Avalon building [at 555 South President Street] is 266 feet and Scarlett Place [at 250 South President Street] is 159.) I communicated that compromise to the owner and developer of the parcel. They were not prepared to agree to that height, and so I have pulled the bill from the planning commission’s docket for January 25.”
Because the developer didn’t agree to the compromise height limit, the bill is “now paused,” Cohen said in his letter. “If the community organizations and developer would like to renegotiate or resume the conversation, we can come back to the table for those discussions.”
Cohen ended his letter by saying he believes that “the best and highest use of this parcel is not a parking lot, and that greater density in Little Italy is critical to ensuring we have a thriving small business community, and revenue to make enhanced security, cleaning and greening possible. I am hopeful that we can ultimately reach an agreement, but please know that my office will always support our community.”
Asked about the bill’s status as of this week, Maggie Master, Cohen’s chief of staff, said it’s still on hold.
“The bill is paused until further notice, so no plans to be back on the [Planning Commission] docket any time soon,” she said in an email message. At the same time, Cohen “has not formally pulled the bill, as he wants to give the developer time to determine whether the 180 foot number is something that they are interested in pursuing. If they come back to the table, we’ll re-engage in the bill process. Zeke would very much like to see this property activated at a higher use, so hoping that ultimately the developer determines they can make it work at that height.”
Some Little Italy residents say they aren’t happy with the idea of a 180-foot height limit and don’t believe the LINA representative should have agreed to that figure without consulting with the full membership.
The City Council’s Economic and Community Development Committee will hold a public hearing on Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. in City Hall to consider legislation that would permit the 32-story tower on Light Street. The Planning Commission voted in December to support enabling legislation for that project.
I wonder how full Scarlett Pl is or the Avalon. In this financial climate, many of us wonder who is living in these expensive places. They are not the folks who are going to hang out on the marble steps with you, I am almost certain. Why do developers take charming areas and make them less charming?
For their own profit, of course. They don’t live in these areas.
How do the large apartment buildings planned for the inner harbor get support from the council with zero push back and these do not?
Don’t you already know the answer to that?
FYI… the TILICO does not exist anymore and has not for a long time! Little Italy neighborhood was surveyed and Did Not want the building. Zeke needs to keep neighborhood people in mind! Not his own interest. Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods. Let’s get the Inner Harbor agreed on and the crime figured out! People from the county need to feel comfortable again to come into the city and support stores and restaurants.
The neighborhoods surrounding the Inner Harbor are neighborhoods too, and the Inner Harbor project would have a detrimental effect on our quality of life., not to mention the health of the Patapsco River, and traffic congestion in the area is already horrific without narrowing Light ST to two lanes. All for the benefit of WHO..the Developer, not US>
This is what I hate most about Baltimore residents. We complain about how boring it is and what Baltimore doesn’t have compared to DC or Philly. Then when a developer comes here and takes a interest in our city and wants to modernized it. All we do is bitch and complain and place all these old antiquated policies and building construction restrictions to prevent positive growth. Baltimore city residents need to get out of their own way sometimes and let development take place God only knows we need it here. We haven’t had a wow factor in architecture since Harbor Place and the surrounding area in over 30 years.