Waterfront Coalition

Residents fighting the construction of the 31-story Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel lost another battle yesterday when a Baltimore Circuit judge dismissed the second of three lawsuits filed to halt the hotel.In a sharply worded opinion, Judge Richard T. Rombro did not agree with the residents' claims that the city had violated its development plan when it approved the hotel."This court does not doubt the sincerity of the plaintiffs, but sincerity and zeal cannot overcome the facts and the law in this case," Rombro wrote in the opinion released yesterday.

Opponents of the proposed 41-story Wyndham Hotel filed another suit in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday to block its construction, alleging that the City Council violated its development plan when it approved the project.The suit alleges that the council failed to adhere to its Urban Renewal Plan, which limits the height of any waterfront building on the 20-acre Inner Harbor East tract to 120 feet.The 19-member council amended the plan Dec. 18 to allow H&S Properties Development Corp. to build a 430-foot-high hotel.

Just 12 blocks separate the old headquarters of Legg Mason at 100 Light St. in downtown Baltimore from its glassy new headquarters at 100 International Drive in Harbor East. But it's a quantum leap for the global asset manager - and the city that fought to keep it in town. The 24-story Legg Mason Tower is part of a wave of waterfront development that marks an expansion and redefinition of Baltimore's downtown - from a relatively compact core with a well-defined business district to a new, linear city that encircles the harbor, with eight miles of shoreline and companies and residences spread out all along the water's edge.

Key leaders of the General Assembly said yesterday that they would not support a bill that could block construction of the 41-story Wyndham Inner Harbor East hotel, a project that has been criticized because it would require more than $40 million in public subsidies.House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said yesterday that they would not support legislation that would force the city to win voter approval before spending public money on the controversial $132 million project.

A three-judge panel at the Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis heard arguments yesterday on the zoning approval for the proposed Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel.The challenge, filed by the Waterfront Coalition against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, seeks to invalidate the zoning.Each side had 30 minutes to argue its case. Typically, decisions are rendered within six to eight weeks.In past action, the coalition -- made up of neighborhood groups from Fells Point, Butchers Hill, Canton and East Baltimore -- has sought to set aside the amendment of the Inner Harbor East Master Plan and to obtain an archaeological investigation of buried train tracks thought to be under the hotel site.

A Baltimore judge refused yesterday to reconsider a ruling striking down millions of dollars in tax breaks for the planned Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel.Baltimore Circuit Judge Richard T. Rombro's decision to uphold his November ruling eliminating $75 million in tax breaks for the 31-story hotel sets the stage for a lengthy appeal, and possibly a campaign to alter state laws in the next General Assembly session.In rejecting a motion by the $134 million hotel's developers to reconsider the ruling, Rombro reiterated that "payment in lieu of taxes" (PILOT)

Residents battling construction of the Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel headed back to the courtroom yesterday with their third lawsuit, this one challenging the legality of the hotel's tax exemption.Judge Richard T. Rombro took the matter under advisement, after about two hours of arguments.At issue is whether the city had the authority to grant a tax exemption under which the Wyndham is to pay $1 a year for 25 years -- an agreement that hotel opponents say amounts to about $85.6 million in lost property taxes over 25 years.

The proposed 45-story Wyndham Inner Harbor East Hotel drew criticism yesterday at the first public forum on the project, with many citizens raising questions about its design and potential impact on neighborhoods."

Development plans for Canton's last big chunk of available waterfront land have been scaled down to about five dozen luxury townhouses instead of a huge complex of warehouse-style offices, stores, houses and a parking garage. Timonium-based Cignal Corp. won unanimous approval from the city's Planning Commission yesterday to build between 64 and 66 townhouses on the vacant North Shore property at 2301 Boston St. in Southeast Baltimore. The houses would be three- and four-story brick structures and sell for an average of $400,000.

Steve Bunker, an 11th-generation old salt whose roots in his native Maine date to the 1600s, dropped anchor in Fells Point in 1976. "I had first visited Fells Point as a young seaman, and when I moved to Baltimore, it was like telling people you were moving to Newark, New Jersey. I mean, it wasn't exactly a garden spot back then," Bunker said with a laugh the other day from his home in Portland, Maine. "I signed on as the city's maritime historian, and my $2 title was curator of Inner Harbor historic properties and exhibits," he said.