Board Members Present: Chris Billak (President), Wynnona Engle-Pratt (Vice President), Samantha Horn (Secretary), Sadie Baker (Treasurer), Pete Morrill, Matt Williams
Comptroller Bill Henry, JH Hardy (Staff)
Councilman Jermaine Jones, Cristina Cortez (Staff)
Councilwoman Odette Ramos
Staff Jen McKenzie
Mae Hanzlik and Chaquetta Wallace, DOT
Total Attendees
~20 attendees in person, 5 on Zoom
Passcode: 8.z96n$F
Agenda
- Community Introduction
- Canopy Project Update-
- GRIA was awarded $99,0000 by the Cheseapeake Bay Trust for planting work in Remington and Charles Village. New pits have been marked out with white paint.
- GRIA was awarded $200,000 by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and $10,000 from BGE for the Urban Trees 2026 Grant. Work will begin in Spring 2026 alongside partner neighborhoods of Barclay, Old Goucher, Abell, Charles Village, and Harwood
- GRIA was awarded $10k BGE Grant
- Question- Tree of Heavens on Fox Street- Chris is working to bring the neighbors together and hoping that if the tree were to fall in the city right of way
- September 28th Tree Planting Event- originally along Falls Rd, waiting to hear from City office to see if those will be
- Question- Is GRIA planting all these trees while Hopkins is taking trees out?
- Answer- GRIA has asked Hopkins to do everything they can to keep the trees; JH will be staging a crane. We’ve asked the city to do what they can to prevent the trees from getting taken down when it comes time for permitting.
- Answer from Councilwoman Ramos- asked JHU to use the Agora building entrance; believes the storm infrastructure could be fixed without cutting trees
- Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry
- Role of the Comptroller- Generally the Chief Financial Officer for their org- not the case in Baltimore because Mayor McKeldin moved it all under the “Department of Finance” that reports to Mayor
- Some moved under the Comptroller- audits, real estate, municipal postal operations, telecommunications, Board of Estimates (functions as a way for the mayor to make decisions in public)
- Emergency Procurement Request- can go directly to Director of Finance and skip procurement process
- Was used by DPW 2 years ago for a $50 million contract with DPW; happened while Comptroller’s office was working to make processes more transparent
- Charter change approved 2.5 years ago for departments to move from Department of Finance to the Comptroller- Comptroller’s office received Accounts Payable (one of 3 divisions in 1 of bureaus of finance dept) and improved workflow by separating the agencies. Improved processes and payment turnaround time
- Sisson Street Project-
- Q- Would you be supportive of removing the Mayor’s votes off the Board of Estimates and restoring it to 3 elected officials?
- Yes
- Q- Do you want the entire Dept of Finance to move to the Comptroller’s office?
- Yes
- DOT Big Jump Updates- Mae Hanzlik
- Replacing plastic barriers with semi permanent barriers- Have completed some concrete jersey barriers on West side, working on what will be implemented on
- 28th St. Bridge
- Working on some beautification options- survey on the streets of baltimore page
- Question- does long term planning for phase 3 include the bridge? No
- Question- Is regular maintenance planned for the bike lanes?
- A- utilize 311 to notify DOT, heard whispers of a street sweeper
- Question- DPW work on Sisson Street and bicycle detoured the bike lane- when will it be fixed? Additional changes have been made that were outside the plan
- A- will check in on those items
- Question- Will the concrete jersey barriers on the bridge be tied into the bridge?
- A- the materials for the jersey barriers have not been determined because they cannot be drilled into the bridge
- Question- Remington is planning a Big Jump cleanup for the fall- can we work together to ensure that work done during the cleanup
- Asked for about 2 weeks and follow up then
- Q- Sisson Street Bridge Status?
- Bridge is completely removed and support structures. We do not know when re-construction will occur
- Sisson Street Community Transfer Station- Chris Billak and Jed Weeks (Land Use Committee Chair)
- Summary- City plans to sell the Sisson Street Community Transfer Station and move it to Falls Road in the Jones Falls Valley
- 8/12/25 Community meeting showed potential road closure along falls road, improve pedestrian and cycling access and limit trucks/cars
- GRIA has no formal stance yet bc we have not seen plans; wants to see a dense mixed use facility on Sisson Street Lot
- GRIA Process: Land Use Committee states that the committee can make a recommendation to the GRIA board for adoption- LUC will likely vote for proposal for relocation. Utilizes guidance from neighborhood plan
- Neighborhood plan states that the neighborhood would like to see dense mixed use proposals that do not promote too many cars- conversations on the Sisson Street Transfer site date to 2018 with Mayor Pugh. At that time it was decided to close the site. Neighborhood dumpster days and pop ups were suggested, which were successful during Covid
- Other suggested locations that were considered but not usable for various reasons- Camp Small location, Fleischman Vinegar (in the flood plain), MTA area off north ave was declined d/t cars crossing tracks and is now the proposed site for the BGE Transmission lines
- In June, Chief of Staff Calvin Young presented at Land Use- LUC gave feed back that said it was a bad idea, but if it were need to happen it would need significant pedestrian safety changes made
- DOT working with Midtown community benefits for Jones Falls Gateway Plan to widen the trail bc bikes/strollers are pushed into the street at least up to streetcar site.
- Next Land Use Committee meeting will likely vote on a statement/recommendation for GRIA
- Seawall had talked about a dense, walkable development at Sisson Street site, currently lookling like a large, car oriented strip mall/grocery store
- DISCUSSION
- Resident- Baltimore Fishbowl article states that if developer signs with Baltimore Development Corp (BDC), then the developer is not permitted to discuss publicly- Is this the case?
- Jed- Seawall submitted an unsolicited bid, which opened RFP process. City council people could help us require plans that are less car- centric
- Resident- “we cannot betray the Jones falls” and make connections to gain access to the water. Priority is of the nature and protecting the Jones Falls, giving up public access to waterfront. Suggestion is to take a strong stance that we should make a statement about the developments we want
- Councilwoman Ramos- suggests GRIA make 2 positions- 1st for the sale of the property and 2nd for the relocation to the Potts and Callahan location
- Councilman Jones- Biggest concerns are flooding and impact on the Jones Falls ecosystem, administration told him that mitigation would be in place; one of the first sites that was selected
- Jed- 100 year/500 year floodplain- from permitting perspective there is no difference and the current design doesn’t comply. Yes, there are two issues going on. As a neighborhood, is our only leverage is pushing for the sale and then blocking the relocation?
- Pete- why did closing the Sisson Street Dump not get discussed/presented?
- Councilwoman Ramos- doesn’t know, it has not been part of the discussion
- Comptroller Bill Henry- This has been a behind the scenes conversation for months- has regular 1:1 with the mayor and used one to talk about this issue sometime in 2024. As recently as 2024 was considering improving other facilities and simply closing sisson street. Weeks later the Mayor’s office came back to Comptroller’s office to state that he wants the dump in the area- Mayor is the top advocate for not ‘just closing it’
- Councilman Jones- pitched closing Sisson Street when first propososed location shut down, Mayor wanted to keep it open.
- Q for Comptroller- Does it feel like the Mayor would be amenable if he heard enough community pushback?
- Bill- If you were going to take that approach, do it as a coalition from not just GRIA but the Jones Falls Gateway, Hampden, etc.
- Qestion/comment from zoom- everyone strongly opposes moving it
- Dont Trash the Falls Campaign and Hampden have made statements
- Q- why do people want Jones falls open?
- Easy alternative to 83 and access to downtown
- Councilman Jones- keep sending emails and voicing opinions, office is reading and cataloging them
- Q Jed- Do you have people that want it moved down to potts and callahan apace?
- Councilman Jones and Councilwoman Ramos- yes. Some that want to do it in a way that could make it work for everyone
- Most opposition is to moving the dump in the first place and that Falls Road should remain 100% open
- ComptrollerBill Henry- whenever city govt proposes anything, people assume “this is what’s going to happen” so most people that are fine with it or are ok with it just don’t say anything
- Original plan a few years ago was to close Sisson Street and use the savings to make improvements at other DPW sites
- Question- Is the selling of the DPW site profits earmarked for anything?
- City will need to pay rent to where the dump will go- so it will go toward that
- Question- Do we know how much the city is selling the site for and how much the lease will be?
- Sale is in negotiations- sale is through BDC, then the lease through office of real estate.
- Introduced at council on 8/18 for council to give permission to the city to sell the land- there was no vote. Needs to go through Planning and Council. Then the lease needs to go to board of estimates
- Why was GRIA not given the opportunity to review this?
- Councilwoman Ramos recommended to urge conditions put on the sale
- Question from Zoom- Whats the timeline for GRIA statement?
- Likely next land use meeting (Sept 3rd). Or landuse@griaonline.org
- Question- Do we have a rubric of what alternative sites were considered and declined prior to choosing the Falls Road Site?
- Jed- no, but we’re asking for that
Community Announcements
- Baltimore Book Festival and Wyman Park Dell Book Festival 9/12-9/14
- Hauntingdon is 10/25/25! Reach out to
- Managing Director for the Undercroft- If neighbors have concerns about noise, please reach out directly so it can be resolved! admin@theundercroft.org
- Volunteer call out for flyer distribution! Please reach out to Jen at volunteers@griaonline.org to take a flyering route next month. Routes are ~2 blocks and a great way to meet your neighbors
- Church of the Guardian Angel thrift shop, runs 1st & 2nd Sat of the month, 10am – 2 pm, bring donations during open hours only, also seeking volunteers; Food Pantry, every Wednesday from 9 am – 10 am, need volunteers for delivery drivers and some muscle on Tuesday mornings to unload trucks (9:30 – 10:15ish)
- Remington Brunch Club – Every Saturday, 9:30 am to 2 pm, in front of Mount Royal, food and local makers every week
- Mount Royal Soaps Night Markets – Every 3rd Friday from 5 pm to 9 pm (April through November), includes food, vendors, free drinks!
- RemFest Merchandise will be for sale at Mount Royal Soaps- proceeds will benefit GRIA
Next Community Meeting: September 17, 2025