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.