Harford Road Overlay bill is back and before its sponsor’s committee tomorrow
Councilman Ryan Dorsey is too conflicted to chair the hearing, a critic says, pressing City Council President Zeke Cohen to appoint another lawmaker
Above: Baltimore City Council members Ryan Dorsey and Sharon Green Middleton, chair and vice chair of the Land Use & Transportation Committee. (Charm TV)
Opponents of a bill to open up single-family properties along the Harford Road corridor to apartment conversions and teardowns for new construction have a complaint about the bill hearing scheduled for tomorrow:
It’s being chaired by Councilman Ryan Dorsey, the sponsor of the Harford Road Overlay District measure and longtime proponent of an idea that’s been bitterly opposed by many in his northeast Baltimore district.
“It’s a conflict. He’s the primary advocate for the bill,” said Lauraville resident Jody Landers, who has written a letter to City Council President Zeke Cohen objecting to Dorsey presiding over the bill’s consideration before the Land Use & Transportation Committee.
Landers, a former city councilman and opponent of many of Dorsey’s zoning proposals, noted that in the council’s online bill file, the “applicant’s statement” is “the same information sheet that Dorsey compiled and gives out at meetings.”
“I don’t see how he can even claim that he would have a fair hearing on this,” Landers told The Brew. “If they don’t require him to step down from this hearing, it’s just going to be another item that we can file a suit against.”
He suggested that Vice Chair Sharon Green Middleton instead preside at the bill hearing.
A previous lawsuit by northeast residents swatted away an earlier version of the Harford Overlay bill filed by the 3rd District councilman. A judge ruled in July that more than 1,700 residents and property owners affected by the zoning change were never given proper legal notice of it.
Under the nullified measure, three miles of Harford Road and surrounding streets were re-zoned from single-family zoning to include multi-family zoning. Parts of Lauraville, Arcadia, Moravia-Walther, Hamilton and Westfield were impacted by the change.
Dorsey’s new bill (25-0093) seeks approval of essentially the same legislation after mailing notice of it to property owners and scheduling two community meetings.
Cohen, who has backed Dorsey’s push last year for a suite of controversial up-zoning measures, has not yet responded to The Brew’s request for comment.
Landers said he sent copies of his letter to the council’s attorney, Aaron DeGraffenreidt, the city law department and Cohen.
Single-family homes on Harford Road that would be within the proposed Overlay District, which would extend three miles from Lauraville to the city-county line. (Mark Reutter, Baltimore Planning Department)
Density Debate Rekindled
Debate was intense on the 2024 bill to create the Overlay.
Dorsey and his supporters argued that denser housing along Harford Road, which has long suffered from commercial vacancies, would attract new residents who could walk to and patronize businesses if their housing needs were met.
“We need more residents and businesses – it is our obligation to help create an environment that allows for that,” Arcadia homeowner Allison Seyler wrote to the Council at the time.
“Valuable renters like college students, young professionals (some of whom work at local businesses on Harford Road), divorced parents, elderly folks (who have called this place home for decades) looking to downsize, members of the LGBTQ and disability communities, and others desiring to live in a walkable, dynamic neighborhood” would be attracted by the new multi-unit housing, she argued.
Opponents painted a different picture.
The up-zoning would leave the area, a swath of small- and medium-sized, single-family houses and bungalows, prey to real estate speculators who would pack in more dwelling units than the area could handle, they predicted. Slumlords’ behavior would go unchecked by the city, they warned, and property values would plummet.
“It makes no sense to sacrifice stable, integrated neighborhoods to help with a current commercial vacancy problem,” Landers said at the time. “It’s like using a shotgun to kill a mosquito.”
Dueling fliers about the latest Harford Road Overlay bill from sponsor Ryan Dorsey and, at right, from residents who oppose the bill.
Similar criticisms were expressed at community meetings that Dorsey held on the second iteration of the bill.
Attendees raised concerns about about parking problems, overburdened city infrastructure, an influx of out-of-town speculators and the potential six-story height of new multi-family buildings.
Provisions permitting denser, higher housing as part of an overlay zone violate the Zoning Code, according to land use attorney John C. Murphy.
“Picture six-story apartment houses in what was formerly a neighborhood of detached single-family homes” – Attorney John Murphy.
“Maryland law allows overlay zones, which are zones superimposed on existing zones, adding additional restrictions,” he told The Brew. “The best example is historic district zoning that establishes additional historic standards, but doesn’t disturb the underlying zoning, which continues in force.”
“Council Bill 25-0093 violates city law for overlay zones since it removes the R-3 restriction, which allows only detached single family zones, and allows up to R-10, the code’s most intensive multi family zone,” Murphy said.
“Picture six-story apartment houses in what was formerly a neighborhood of detached single-family homes,” he added.
How the Baltimore City Zoning Code defines overlay districts.