Baltimore City housing commissioner Paul Graziano is seeking an amendment to the Key Highway Urban Renewal Ordinance, which would enable HarborView to build two 26-story buildings in addition to its plans for a 17-story high-rise known as The Pinnacle.
The move has left a sour taste in the mouths of local residents angered that additional building at the Inner Harbor will further comprise their view.
“The city needs to slow down the building here,” said Paul Robinson, spokesman for the Friends of Federal Hill Park. “All these skyscrapers are resulting in a line of demarcation that creates a disconnect between the surrounding neighborhoods and communities and limits our views of the harbor,” he said.
According to Robinson, the current city ordnance has provisions in it to protect view corridors of the harbor from the west to the east. “[HarborView?s] creative lawyers are interpreting the language to move their plans forward,” Robinson said.
However Frank Wise, vice president of HarborView Properties Development Company, says it is Baltimore City, not his firm, that is seeking the amendment.
“This is something that the Department of Planning wants, the current ordnance allows the housing commissioner to make changes to the master plan as time evolves as part of his interpretive powers,” Wise said.
Wise says his company is already approved to build The Pinnacle and, in their interpretation of the law, the two additional 26-story buildings nearby.
“The reality is that we are building far fewer units than the ordnance allows, and in response to community concerns we altered our plans. This is really about the community?s displeasure with the commissioner?s ?interpretive powers,? ” he added.
At present, the amendment is before the City Council?s Urban Affairs and Aging committee, chaired by City Councilwoman Agnes Welch.
“The amendment just came to us and we haven?t even looked at it or scheduled public hearings, but due process will occur,” she said.
Paul Graziano was not available for comment.
