For most of the 45 years that Colleen Rosenbach has lived in Locust Point, her neighbor was a hulking grain elevator that coated her cars and windows with brown dust. Now, that silo is being turned into upscale condominiums.
"I don't like either one," said Rosenbach, 70. "But at least you knew what to expect with the grain elevator."
In a place where houses are passed down through generations and neighbors like to sit on their steps and chat on lazy afternoons, development has been met cautiously.
Locust Point residents at first accepted new townhomes and offices as the price of progress in their working-class community. But townhouses are one thing, high-rises quite another.
When Struever Bros. proposed a 15-story residential tower, along with office, apartment and condominium buildings, residents of this insular South Baltimore neighborhood rose up like the residents who defended nearby Fort McHenry from imperial invaders. Enough, they said.
Meetings were held. Petitions were signed. Statements were drafted. And last week, Struever Bros. backed down and unveiled a significantly reduced plan that would add mainly townhouses that could weave into the existing fabric of the neighborhood.
"I characterized the initial presentation as 'Developers Gone Wild,'" said Del. Brian McHale, a third-generation resident of Locust Point. "There is a point of oversaturation."
Locust Point, tucked away from the rest of the city on its own peninsula, was for years insulated from change by geography. Across the harbor, the gentrification of Canton provided Locust Pointers a lesson in what not to do. Residents say they want to find a balance between old and new. They don't want the area to become so dense that parking becomes impossible or so affluent that their children won't be able to live there.
"We don't want to be Canton," said Maggie Spatarella, who moved to Locust Point from Ellicott City in March. "I'm very much worried about multiple towers going up. I'm worried about the harbor getting sold and having very little [water] access for the folks that live here."
Home to some of the few remaining parcels of undeveloped Inner Harbor waterfront, Locust Point has in the past decade been a target for growth. Hundreds of new townhouses went up. The Tide Point business park took off. And developer Patrick Turner turned that old grain elevator into Silo Point, where 228 condos will go on sale this summer. Prices haven't been set, but they are expected to be higher than the 290-foot silo itself.
