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Proposed trolley system faces community, financial challenges
Issue date: 9/25/08
The proposed development of a fixed rail trolley connecting Homewood to the Inner Harbor has progressed since it was first granted $200,000 in June 2007 by the Baltimore Board of Estimates and the Charles Village Development Corporation.
Kristen Speaker of the Development Corporation estimates that the project will cost $156,000,000 until its projected opening in 2012.
The project, however, is not without its critics. Nor is it certain that it will actually happen.
David Hill, executive director of the Charles Village Benefits District, summed up the current situation as one in which the "trolley is beginning to percolate to [the] top. People are becoming aware of the issues" involved. Hill contends that those in the community who have come out against the development are "not representative of the community as a whole."
"The more informed people are [about the trolley development] the more concerned they are," said Paul Warren, chair of the Committee for Development and Zoning for the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere Association.
Under the plan, $85,000,000 for the project will be raised by so-called TIF, or tax incremental financing. This system, which has been employed throughout the nation by municipalities to raise funds for redevelopment project, creates a special tax zone in the area which would supposedly benefit from the development.
Bonds are issued based on the forecasted increase in tax revenue due to the increase in the designated area. Speaker, of the Development Corporation, said that the rest of the funding would come from "state and federal" sources.
On Sept. 12, the Development Corporation presented for public review a draft of an act which would create a special tax district within one quarter of a mile east and west of Charles Street, running from University Parkway in the north to Conway Street in the south. Commercial properties and real estate properties would face an increase of .05 percent, or $50 per $100,000. Under the proposed legislation to create a Charles Street Trolley Authority, nonprofit organizations such as Hopkins, the Baltimore Museum of Art and area hospitals, would be expected to make "voluntary" contributions equal to what they would pay as a non-tax exempt property. The draft goes on to state that if non-profits did not contribute their proscribed amount, the authority would "dissolve."
Kristen Speaker of the Development Corporation estimates that the project will cost $156,000,000 until its projected opening in 2012.
The project, however, is not without its critics. Nor is it certain that it will actually happen.
David Hill, executive director of the Charles Village Benefits District, summed up the current situation as one in which the "trolley is beginning to percolate to [the] top. People are becoming aware of the issues" involved. Hill contends that those in the community who have come out against the development are "not representative of the community as a whole."
"The more informed people are [about the trolley development] the more concerned they are," said Paul Warren, chair of the Committee for Development and Zoning for the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere Association.
Under the plan, $85,000,000 for the project will be raised by so-called TIF, or tax incremental financing. This system, which has been employed throughout the nation by municipalities to raise funds for redevelopment project, creates a special tax zone in the area which would supposedly benefit from the development.
Bonds are issued based on the forecasted increase in tax revenue due to the increase in the designated area. Speaker, of the Development Corporation, said that the rest of the funding would come from "state and federal" sources.
On Sept. 12, the Development Corporation presented for public review a draft of an act which would create a special tax district within one quarter of a mile east and west of Charles Street, running from University Parkway in the north to Conway Street in the south. Commercial properties and real estate properties would face an increase of .05 percent, or $50 per $100,000. Under the proposed legislation to create a Charles Street Trolley Authority, nonprofit organizations such as Hopkins, the Baltimore Museum of Art and area hospitals, would be expected to make "voluntary" contributions equal to what they would pay as a non-tax exempt property. The draft goes on to state that if non-profits did not contribute their proscribed amount, the authority would "dissolve."
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