Blonder resurrecting plans for City Dock hotel
Proposal by Annapolis business owner calls for three-story structure
An Annapolis business owner whose plan to build a massive hotel at City Dock in Annapolis failed two years ago is working on a new, smaller proposal.
Harvey Blonder and his architect, urban designer Peter Fillat, hope the three-story hotel will move forward now that the redevelopment of City Dock, a multimillion-dollar infrastructure project that includes the demolition and rebuilding of Hillman Garage, will soon be underway. Theproject, however, is likely to face some of the same opposition Blonder faced in 2018.
“We’re very excited about that, andwe’re ready to start to talk about plans tohave the hotelbecomea part of that,” Blonder said of the City Dock redevelopment plan. “It’s a world-class site, and it’s deserving of aworld-class hospitality venue.”
While no formal proposals have yet been submitted to the city, the project at 12 Dock St. would have
between 60 to 80 hotel rooms plus a roof-top event space and a “Charleston-style architecture,” Filat said. Plans for an underground parking garage have been scrapped.
While smaller than the 2018 proposal, it would still exceed the District 2 Historic District height restriction of 38 feet. The slimmeddown hotel would be 45 feet tall, Fillat said, the maximum height for District 3.
The project is not eligible for approval without a height restriction change.
“We’re working within the existing zoning, but we are looking to change the height area designation of this particular parcel,” Fillatt said.
The effort by Blonder and Fillatt in 2018 called for a hotel that was 75 feet tall with 155 rooms, a ballroom on the roof and an underground
parking garage underneath a public plaza. The site is currently occupied by the restaurant Latitude 38.
It garnered Mayor Gavin Buckley’s support, who was just weeks removed from winning the mayoral election in December 2017. Buckley tried to introduce legislation to rezone City Dock, but the measure failed.
AlderwomanElly Tierney, D-Ward1, has been skeptical of the project. She said flood mitigation at City Dock should be prioritized over redevelopment. The city recorded 18 days of sunny day flooding at City Dock, a new annual record.
“To entertain any zoning change now, other than subgrade elevation changes, is the cart before the horse,” she said. “Any new building would have to … take exhaustive [Historic Preservation Commission] review. I don’t believe that is in the city’s best interest right now.”
Changing height restrictions would require a text amendment in the C2 zoning code, said Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8. Thatwould open the area to other, taller buildings. Text amendments require City Council approval to change. If an amendment is approved, the project would then need to be reviewed by the Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission.
“I don’t think HPC, or the council, are going to be interested in making changes thatwould have unintended consequences elsewhere,” Arnett said. “But I do think that a hotel down there is a good amenity and could be part of the charm of the redo of the City Dock area. I certainly don’t reject it out of hand.”
Buckley is scheduled to meet with
Blonder, Tierney, and Arnett today, according to his weekly schedule. “I’m just going to listen,” Buckley said of the meeting.
“I think the idea of City Dock is to stimulate improvements to the properties around it,” he said. “I understand there is an acceptable size for some people for a boutique hotel. Iwould support an acceptable size hotel if Historic Annapolis were OKwith it and the general population.”
Representatives for Historic Annapolis, a preservation nonprofit, have maintained they do not oppose development in the Historic District, but they do oppose rezoning.
“Historic Annapolis continues tooppose any rezoning that would make way for changing the height and bulk restrictions at City Dock,” said Robert Clark, president of Historic Annapolis. “While we are not opposed to new development, we believe that any new proposal must be compatible with the new vision of City Dock that the City Dock Action Committee worked so hard to accomplish.”
Legislation to change the height restrictions in the area “is something we’re all talking about,” Fillat said.
Two years ago, the proposed hotel drew concern about its height, scale and character, among other issues, from residents in Ward 1. Fillat hosted several public meetings with theWard One Residents Association to address concerns.
Carl Larkin, secretary of the Ward One Residents Association, said he would have to wait to review a project’s formal proposal before passing judgment.
Planning and Zoning Director Sally Nash said her department has received no formal permit applications for such a hotel.
The project “should get proper consideration,” Arnett said.
“It’s not an inappropriate request, but it is one that we need to be very, very careful about.”