Key Highway

A former industrial parcel on Key Highway in South Baltimore will be the site of a seven-story residential and retail project called Riverside Lofts, if developer Mark Shapiro can get the design and financing approvals he needs to move ahead with construction. Shapiro is scheduled today to present preliminary plans for the project to Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. They call for a building with a Walgreens store on the first level and 100 to 120 apartments above.

Baltimore will show off its biggest trucks Saturday and allow young residents to meet police officers, firefighters and others who drive the big rigs through city streets. The Biggest Big Truck Show brings about 20 vehicles to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1415 Key Highway. Visitors can see, touch, even take a seat in many among the fleet of vehicles, including Big Bertha, Baltimore's largest tow truck, fire engine, motorcycles and a fireboat that will shoot up massive plumes of water.

Here's the part where you tell me how wrong (or how right!) I was on a review. This week's bar review is about The Feisty Goat on Key Highway, which opened in August. From the review: The "Feisty Goat is an agreeable sports bar, adequate for sports fans looking for a no-frills atmosphere to watch a game. But, it could use some improvements in service, atmosphere and variety. " The rest of the review is here . Is it fair? Have you been to the Feisty Goat and pet its namesake, which hangs above the cash register?

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for rain and a high temperature around 49 degrees. The low temperature is expected to be around 39 degrees with more rain tonight. TRAFFIC Here are today's morning traffic issues . FROM LAST NIGHT... Fire damages Elkridge motel, closes U.S. 1 : A two-alarm fire caused serious damage to a motel in Elkridge on Monday night, closing U.S. 1 for hours and drawing fire units from surrounding counties. Baltimore plans roundabout for Key Highway, Light Street crossing : City traffic engineers are working on the final design for a $7 million traffic circle at the intersection of Key Highway and Light Street.

For years, South Baltimore residents have thought a key piece of city property on the Inner Harbor was destined to become yet another high-rise, blocking even more of their shrinking view of the water. But Mayor Sheila Dixon is changing course, saying that the site will become much-needed waterfront parkland. The decision ends a plan announced by city officials more than two years ago to offer developers the city Fire Department's repair facility on Key Highway - a plan that set off alarm bells in a community increasingly separated from the harbor by squat townhouses and condominiums.

Architect Paul Marks has probably worked on the design of more buildings along Baltimore's Key Highway corridor than anyone else in town. His projects have included the HarborView pier homes, the Ritz Carlton Residences, the Lutheran Center and his own home overlooking the harbor. Based on the sheer volume of work alone, one might call him the King of Key Highway. So it should come as no surprise that the design firm Marks founded in 1967 now has offices along Key Highway as well - in the old "King Syrup" building, no less.

When Olympic beach volleyball came to Key Highway this year, the NBC cameras panned west toward the Inner Harbor and east toward Fells Point. But they never faced south to capture the highway's grit: old waterfront warehouses, office buildings and torn-up road.To a number of entrepreneurs, developers and museum executives, though, the 83-year-old industrial highway is downright eye-catching. In the 10-block stretch between Covington and Lawrence streets, they see the possibility of a Gold Coast of restaurants, bars and stores.

After a quarter-century of delays, Baltimore officials are promising to start construction this year on an extension of Key Highway along the waterfront to an office complex and an industrial area in Locust Point. The city's Board of Estimates is scheduled to vote this morning on the approval of $5 million toward the $10 million project. The state has also pledged $5 million. If the board approves the money, as expected, the quarter-mile stretch of two-lane highway will be built this year from the end of Key Highway, near the Domino Sugar plant, through a rail yard, to Nicholson and Hull streets, beside the new Tide Point office complex, according to officials with the city Department of Transportation.

A fortress of tony condominiums and townhouses now stands on the grounds of the old Bethlehem Steel shipyard at the base of Federal Hill. The city's Fire Department Repair Facility down the road is slated to be sold for more waterfront residential development. And cargo vessels long ago gave way to the pleasure boats that now dock at the Baltimore Museum of Industry's adjoining sailing school. The Lynch brothers, owners of General Ship Repair Corp., see the writing on the wall. One of the few remaining industrial outfits on Key Highway's Inner Harbor rim, the fourth-generation family business is eyeing a move to Canton after nearly 80 years at its present location.

Forget the red glare of those rock ets. Ditto the bombs bursting in air, or the twilight's last gleaming.The real hardship in getting to Fort McHenry is driving Key Highway.Francis Scott Key is probably doing 60 rpm in his grave. Let the British try to assail the fort by land this time -- the first wagon would throw an axle before it reached the Rusty Scupper.With its dips and convolutions, potholes, exposed cobblestones and abandoned railroad tracks, Key Highway has become the most jarring way in and out of Baltimore.

City traffic engineers are working on the final design for a $7 million traffic circle at the intersection of Key Highway and Light Street. The roundabout — about half the size of the one in Towson — will replace the traffic lights at the gateway intersection that connects South Baltimore and the Inner Harbor near the Maryland Science Center . Construction could begin as soon as July. The intersection has long been a malfunction junction, with befuddled motorists and daredevil pedestrians mixing it up on a road surface scarred by old streetcar tracks.

Gift guide 2011: 10 gifts with Baltimore flavor Sloop Betty Vodka $31.99 Area liquor stores; see sloopbetty.com/location.html Can't have a holiday without a little holiday cheer. So stand out from the crowd by giving Sloop Betty, a Maryland-made, handcrafted wheat vodka. T-shirts from Gimmickwear $12.99 and up gimmickwear.com Helping define Baltimore beyond crabs and Natty Boh, Gimmickwear's T-shirt classics include line drawings of street scenes in several Baltimore neighborhoods.

Debbie and Ben Zager moved around the greater Baltimore area five times in the past 20 years. Three months ago, they moved into a townhouse in the Harborview residences in Baltimore, and now the couple plans to stay put. "This is what I wake up to in the morning," said Debbie Zager, gesturing from her second-floor balcony to a view of sailboats moored at the Harborview Marina and, in the distance, boats gliding toward the outer harbor and the...

Here's the part where you tell me how wrong (or how right!) I was on a review. This week's bar review is about The Feisty Goat on Key Highway, which opened in August. From the review: The "Feisty Goat is an agreeable sports bar, adequate for sports fans looking for a no-frills atmosphere to watch a game. But, it could use some improvements in service, atmosphere and variety. " The rest of the review is here . Is it fair? Have you been to the Feisty Goat and pet its namesake, which hangs above the cash register?

Wouldn't it be great to jog, walk or bike to Fort McHenry directly from the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Locust Point on a continuous waterfront parkway? Baltimore has a potentially wonderful, seven-mile stretch around the harbor from Canton to Fort McHenry that should become our city's "central park. " While the Inner Harbor is the center of this, we should be thinking beyond it and taking advantage of greater opportunities. This is more important, on many levels, than just adding more Inner Harbor attractions.

A six-year effort by city officials and others to rezone certain industrial properties along the South Baltimore waterfront to permit more mixed-use development was endorsed Thursday by Baltimore's Planning Commission, which approved two City Council bills drafted to bring about the changes. The pending legislation would alter the boundaries of an urban renewal plan for Key Highway and create a new renewal area called Key Highway South. It would replace an area in which only industrial uses are permitted at present.

As they attempt to craft a plan for how the last undeveloped stretch of Key Highway will evolve, city planners will walk a tightrope this month between a community afraid of losing its charm and developers afraid of losing the best deal. The effort follows months of awkward mediation games and tense meetings. City officials did anything they could think of to get business and community interests to see eye-to-eye since their first try, a proposal that would have traded muddy waterfront lots for high-rise condos, jolting nearly every South Baltimore neighborhood association into near revolt.

The Crash Cafe, a disaster-themed restaurant proposed for Key Highway that would feature part of a crashed and smoking DC-3 plane jutting out of the side, was dealt another setback yesterday. Owner Pat Turner thought he would get approval for his building permit yesterday, but a city interagency planning committee kicked the project back to him, saying his plans lacked specifics, such as fencing and pavement details for a parking lot. Turner had expected to have opened the restaurant - located at the defunct Globe Brewing Co. at 1321 Key Highway - which he describes as a "theatrical adventure," and others call offensive and distasteful - in the spring.

We have a potentially wonderful 7-mile waterfront park from Canton to Fort McHenry that should become Baltimore's Central Park. While the Inner Harbor is the center of this, we should be thinking beyond it and taking advantage of greater opportunities. This is more important on many levels than just adding more Inner Harbor attractions. We need to bring major benefits to the whole area for residents and visitors alike. If we want a balance of amenities for both, we need to strongly incorporate the primarily residential waterfront areas beyond the Inner Harbor where neighborhoods meet the water.

A man's body was pulled Tuesday morning from shallow waters of the Inner Harbor near the 1400 block of Key Highway, Baltimore police said. The body was found about 8 a.m., police said, near a stretch of Key Highway home to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. jtorbati@baltsun.com