News & Community

Harbor Point clash: Project moving forward, despite controversy

Edited by Max Weiss

A $1 billion-dollar waterfront development project—called a
“once-in-a-generation” opportunity by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and
pushed by City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young—the
controversial 27-acre Harbor Point plan received the City Council’s
go-ahead in September.

Tucked between Harbor East and Fells Point, the future home of the
Exelon Corp.’s 22-story headquarters and other mixed-use projects, led
by developer Michael Beatty, will receive $107 million in taxpayer
assistance, much to the consternation of many city residents and
notably, Councilman Carl Stokes.

The plan passed, however, by a vote of 11-3, on the promise of
bringing new construction jobs and building the city’s tax base. It also
fills in a piece of real estate left desolate since the “clean up” of
the former Allied-Signal chromium plant there some 20 years ago.

Now, plans to bust through the capped toxic soil have sparked a
second wave of controversy about potential environmental fallout from
the project.

“This process has been vetted more than any project that has ever come before this council.”—City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young in The Baltimore Sun