In a rebuff to city economic development officials, Baltimore's Planning Commission has refused to approve creation of an urban renewal district in the West Covington area of South Baltimore, saying redevelopment plans should go forward but condemnation should not be used to forcibly displace thriving businesses and occupied homes.
Panel members voted, 7-1, late Thursday not to recommend an urban renewal bill that would enable the city to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the mostly industrial property on 50 acres along the eastern shore of the Middle Branch and offer it for a privately developed mixed-use project. Members questioned whether the city should be condemning nonblighted properties whose owners were united in opposition.
The renewal ordinance will move next to the City Council, which is not bound by the commission's vote, according to City Solicitor George Nilson.
The rejection comes at a time when the city and its economic development agency, the Baltimore Development Corp., have faced successful challenges to its efforts to take property. Last year, the state's highest court dealt the city back-to-back blows in rulings that said its use of speeded-up "quick take" condemnations was not justified.
In rejecting the West Covington plan, the commissioners said the area, bounded by Interstate 95 on the north, Hanover Street on the east and the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River on the west, offers a rare opportunity to assemble and remake a large tract of waterfront land near downtown.
But the BDC plan "seemed to be fraught with some difficulties," Peter Auchincloss, commission chairman, said in an interview yesterday. "We've dealt with eminent domain issues before which are challenging - the west side [in the traditional downtown retail district] and EBDI [a large area near the Johns Hopkins medical campus] come to mind. Both were difficult but contributed a greater good to the city. This plan would contribute to the greater good to the city, too, but there are existing, reasonably thriving businesses contributing to economic development ... and the tax base."
He noted that the three large industrial businesses that would be displaced all wanted to stay in what they considered a strategic business location, and that one of the property owners already had a deal to sell land to a developer with plans for mixed-use office and residential project.
