The former Boccaccio restaurant building in Little Italy can’t be replaced with a parking lot unless the Baltimore City Council passes an ordinance authorizing that use, according to city planners.
The vacant building at 923-937 Eastern Ave. was sold at auction in July for $1,442,000 to a group associated with the Bagby Building at 509 S. Exeter St., one block east of the former restaurant.
Lisa Regnante, president of the Little Italy Neighborhood Association (LINA), told members this month that the new owners want to tear down the nearly 9,000-square-foot restaurant building to provide parking for tenants of the Bagby Building. Tenants of the Bagby property include Baltimore Sun Media and four restaurants that are part of the Atlas Restaurant Group
But before a parking lot can be created on that property, city planners say, the new owners need the City Council to approve that use. The property is zoned C-5-DE and according to the city’s Zoning Code, parking lots are considered conditional uses in C-5 districts, which requires passage of a council ordinance.
Without a zoning ordinance for the Little Italy parcel, planners say, the owners may be able to obtain a demolition permit for the building but they wouldn’t be permitted by the city to operate a parking lot where the building was.
The requirement was imposed decades ago to prevent owners of buildings in certain commercial districts from tearing them down and replacing them with nothing but parking lots.
An early example of the trend was the 18-story Tower Building at 222 E. Baltimore St., also known as the Hearst Tower Building. It was torn down in 1986 and replaced with a parking lot, and the land is still used for parking nearly 40 years later.
Another example is the former News American building in the 300 block of East Lombard Street. It was torn down after the newspaper closed in 1986 and replaced with a parking lot. Last year, the City Council approved a request by the current owner, a group associated with MCB Real Estate, to extend the period that the land can be used for surface parking.
A third example is the former H. Chambers Co. headquarters in the 1000 block of North Charles Street. Its demolition was controversial because it was in the Mount Vernon Historic District, where preservationists had already seen numerous buildings replaced with parking lots. The property owners argued that the age of the Chambers building, which dated from the 1960s, was outside the age of structures generally considered “contributing buildings” in the Mount Vernon historic district.
Boccaccio was an upscale dining establishment that opened in 1992 and closed after owner Giovanni Rigato died in 2008. Former Orioles owner Peter Angelos bought the property in 2010 but never did anything with it before he died last year. Its zoning permits construction of offices, stores, restaurants, housing or a combination. The property already has a 20-space parking lot.
Regnante told LINA members on Sept. 16 that she was optimistic the Boccaccio building could be gone by Thanksgiving. “It could be six weeks, and it’ll be gone,” she said.
Passage of a land use-related City Council ordinance typically takes longer than that because two public hearings are required, one by the Planning Commission and one by a council committee, and advance public notice is required before hearings can be held.
Jermaine Jones, the council member who represents Little Italy, did not respond to a request for more information.
Regnante said it’s possible that the owners could decide to build a replacement structure on the property at some point. For now, she said, she believes demolition of the Boccaccio building for a parking lot will be good for Little Italy because she thinks the vacant restaurant is an eyesore in its current state.
“Because it’s a parking lot, there will be parking attendants and security and lights and a gate so that area will no longer look like it looks and it will have people there when we’re walking, especially at night when we’re coming to and from the neighborhood,” she said at the LINA meeting. “So that’s a big win for the neighborhood.”
But some commenters on social media said they don’t think a parking lot is an appropriate use.
“Boccaccio’s building could have been rapidly transformed into so many types of educational, art-centric – even for-profit training campuses — after the restaurant closed,” one commenter said. “Angelos and his partners just sat on it.”
“What a shame to turn a building in a dense area like this into a parking lot,” another said. “Build anything else there!”
“Surface parking lots are not an improvement to urban fabric,” a third said.
Heck of a way to build a city ! What is the cost of blight and erosion of the public realm & when does one write off a city as urban structure ?
What does the current Administration have to say and what is their vision ? The Tower Building site has not been much of a contributor to the vitality of downtown. Forever it seems the Powers that Be said we did not have enough parking and that was why downtown was failing…there is lots of parking now.
Instead of a parking lot, make it green space.
Compromise with one level of below ground parking and a green space park on the surface that they have to set aside funding to maintain annually.
A parking park.