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Planning and Historic Preservation Commissions – May 2024
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Vision & FAQ
FAQ’s
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When is the City Dock project set to start?
Major construction including parking restrictions and road closures will begin in the Winter of 2024/2025. You may see surveyors, engineers and electricians preparing the site for construction as early as this Spring, 2024.
How is City Dock Being Funded?
The City earned a $24 million concession payment from the rebuild and 30-year operations advance for Hillman Garage (a public-private partnership). Additional funding came from the federal government in the form of earmarks (directed congressional allocation), FEMA grants and directed state funding from the Maryland legislature and governor.
What benefit is this going to have on the community?
City Dock experiences regular flooding that impacts residents, commerce and infrastructure. For that reason, one benefit will be to protect those downtown assets from the frequent and regular impacts of flooding. In addition, the downtown visitor experience will be drastically improved.
Why not raise the bulkhead/seawall instead of having deployable flood gates?
Raising the bulkhead would block the view to the water and destroy the character of City Dock Park. In addition, putting a 6-8 foot tall seawall in a built maritime environment could create a hazard to boaters.
What will the end result be?
The end result will be a world-class park that will serve residents, businesses and visitors. The park will be a bulwark to protect assets further up City Dock from the impacts of more frequent and more intense flooding events.
What will the process look like?
The work will be conducted in phases. This will limit the impact on downtown overall, but will also help to scale of the project to make it more manageable in scope.
How will this project impact parking?
About 90 parking spaces from Dock Street will be eliminated. Those spaces have been more than offset by additional parking spaces being added at the rebuilt Hillman Garage (+165). The loss of parking will also eliminate a good amount of impervious surface in an area immediately adjacent to Spa Creek, helping with storm-water runoff which heats and pollutes the waterway.
Why don’t you just close all of the storm drains if that is one of the points of intrusion?
Currently, the storm drains are closed. The plan is to realign the storm drains to allow gravity to do the work that the temporary pumps are doing.
What can residents and visitors expect during construction?
The initial phase of construction will have minimal impact on the day-to-day lives of downtown residents and businesses. Phase II will have a more significant impact due to the loss of parking and limited access to Ego Alley and Susan Campbell Park. Please note that all of these inconveniences are temporary.
How will we remain informed?
Updates about the construction will be available by signing up for the City Dock newsletter.
What is being done to keep interest in downtown high?
Construction will be conducted in phases to limit overall disruption. In addition, a marketing campaign has been deployed to help educate residents, visitors and businesses to the work and the phasing of the project. We all understand that an infrastructure of this magnitude will cause disruption. But the prize at the end will be worth it! We can all look forward to a resilient, protected and historic City Dock that is prepared for the future!
What will happen to the boat show, the singer-songwriter festival, the Kunte Kinte Festival and other events that take place at City Dock?
The park has been designed in consultation with the most popular special events and the design will not only protect these events from flood events, but should also improve accommodations for special events.