March 29, 2024
Annapolis, US 46 F

7 things you might have missed about the new Annapolis City Dock

On Tuesday evening, the City Dock Action Committee (CDAC) made its final presentation to the public and will make present it to the full City Council in December.

The latest plan has caused quite the uproar on social media and many people have simply read the headlines and may have missed these 7 very important takeaways from the proposal.

  1. THEY ARE INCREASING PARKING. Yes, they are eliminating most parking at City Dock. Some will remain. However, prior to that parking being removed, the Hillman Garage will be replaced and the plan is to increase the current capacity to handle the removed parking from City Dock and then add some. The end result will be a net INCREASE in parking in the Downtown area. Construction and engineering methods have improved since the 1970s when Hillman was originally built and capacity can be increased without increasing the overall height significantly.
  2. THEY ARE ADDRESSING FLOODING. While this project does not solve the problem of sea-level rise in 2120, it does significantly address the issue of sea-level rise in 2020 and the immediate future. The elevated green space at City Dock will act as a natural barrier plus there are plans to install a resiliency barrier from Newman Street (Fleet Reserve Club) to the US Naval Academy. The CDAC has worked hand in glove with the USNA to ensure that the resiliency measures put in place at City Dock are complementary to those adjacent measures at the USNA.  The consensus plan anticipates resiliency measures for City Dock to be coordinated with the implementation of resiliency structures/devices at the USNA. Additionally, these efforts will be supplemented by the pumps that are already being planned. The plan currently excludes the Susan Campbell Park which will be outside the barriers and presumably would continue to flood; however, when the design/development contractor for City Dock is selected, they will evaluate and determine if and how Susan Campbell Park could be included in the resiliency protection measures.
  3. THEY AREN’T RAISING TAXES. The plan moving forward is to try and identify an appropriate partner to enter into a public-private partnership to ease the burden. And together with the County, they will establish a financing authority (think Maryland Stadium Authority) that will be funded by a proposed  increase in hotel occupancy tax that will fund debt service on bonds sold to investors for City Dock redevelopment. Estimated costs to complete the project are $30 million for the replacement of the Hillman Garage and $50 million for the work surrounding City Dock.
  4. MARKET SPACE IS NOT BEING CLOSED. The rendering shows a potential use for market Space (the area between the Market House and Federal House). That space has been closed for events before and will continue to be used for events, but generally, the street will be open to vehicles.
  5. THIS IS A FIVE YEAR PROJECT. This is a long-term project and one that will be disruptive. The initial phase is to get the financing authority in place and move forward on selecting the contractor for the replacement of the Hillman Garage.  This may take up to a year. The garage is estimated to take up to 2 years to completely replace. ONCE THE GARAGE IS REPLACED, the work on City Dock will begin and the displaced vehicles will be able to use the new garage.  Construction of the project on City Dock is expected to take up to 2 years to complete. So, expect completion sometime in late 2024.
  6. WHAT ABOUT CONDITION OF MAIN STREET? Main Street has been responsible for thousands of tire balances and wheel alignments due to its poor condition. When it was initially installed, it was not installed properly and that mistake was not caught. Replacing the Hillman Garage will involve a good amount of heavy equipment which will travel (and further damage) Main Street.  Now is not the time to replace it. Once Hillman is complete, then the City can address replacement and re-bricking of Main Street.
  7. BUT THE BOAT SHOWS. The Annapolis Boat Shows are part of the DNA of Annapolis and the owners of the show were involved in this plan as well. They will need to make adjustments just as they have in the past (two years ago they needed to install a “fake floor” over the City Dock area to raise their vendors above the flooding) and the co-chairs of the CDAC have said that the management can work with this new plan.

To get the full scope of the project, you can listen to the podcast (downloadable MP3) we did last week with CDAC Co-Chairs Eileen Fogarty and Bill Kardash.

Or you can watch the entire presentation from Tuesday evening.

Below are renderings of what the completed project will look like.

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