As Angel and Freda reported at the Fall 2024 Meeting of the Historic Mount Royal Terrace Association, on August 22nd, 2024, our councilman, James Torrence, introduced several bills to permit the sale of subsurface right-of-way beneath city-owned streets and alleyways along the alignment.

Bill # 24-0567 concerns “Subterranean Portions of Streets and Alleys Bounded by Portions of North Mount Street, Presstman Street, Appleton Street, and Westwood Avenue For the purpose of authorizing the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to sell, at either public or private sale, all its interest in certain parcels of land known as subterranean portions of streets and alleys bounded by portions of N. Mount Street, Presstman Street, Appleton Street, and Westwood Avenue.” Click here to see the history and current status of 24-0567.

Bill # 24-0564 concerns “Subterranean portions of Streets and Alleys bounded by portions of Linden Avenue, W. North Avenue, Eutaw Place, Ducatel Street, Brookfield Avenue, Reservoir Street, Whitelock Street, Newington Avenue, Callow Avenue, Park Avenue, and Mt. Royal Terrace (Group 4) For the purpose of authorizing the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to sell, at either public or private sale, all its interest in certain parcels of land known as subterranean portions of streets and alleys bounded by portions of Linden Avenue, W. North Avenue, Eutaw Place, Ducatel Street, Brookfield Avenue, Reservoir Street, Whitelock Street, Newington Avenue, Callow Avenue, Park Avenue, and Mt. Royal Terrace.” Click here to see the history and current status of 24-0564.

On September 10th, these bills were heard in the Ways and Means Committee. Many members of our community showed up to give public testimony in opposition to the passage of these bills.

The bills are now in committee. Several steps remain before they may be fully considered; the process overall is outlined on the Baltimore City Council’s website.

We encourage all residents to attend future hearings, and to continue to voice their concerns to our elected officials.

When it is announced, HMRTA will post the next hearing to our calendar. To add the HMRTA calendar to your phone so that the hearing will automatically appear, open Calendar > Calendars > Add Calendar > Add Subscription Calendar, and paste the following link: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/historicmountroyal%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

The City Council updates their hearing schedule monthly at https://baltimore.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.