Baltimore residents voice anger as city's housing bill stalls

A bill that would overhaul Baltimore's zoning to allow for multifamily housing in residential zones throughout the city stalled out in committee on Monday as residents voiced their anger, according to our media partner, The Baltimore Banner.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said the bill could help bring down housing costs and would make it easier to convert buildings to allow multiple units.

The Housing Options and Opportunity Act would allow up to four housing units by right in residential areas, depending on the lot's size, according to a press release by the Baltimore Mayor's Office.

The goal of the bill is to amend certain provisions of the Baltimore City Zoning Code to "promote increased development of low-density multi-family dwellings in certain residential districts, striking residential conversion standards for single-family dwellings into multi-family dwellings, amending certain permitted and conditional uses, amending certain bulk and yard standards, and defining certain terms," the bill reads.  

"This bill creates a new category of 'low-density, multi-family housing,' which will make it possible to build the types of housing that exclusionary zoning has long prohibited, expanding housing options in neighborhoods where racist zoning laws dictate who can live there, and how,' Mayor Scott said.

The mayor added that the legislation would allow residents to find a home in Baltimore that meets their needs. 

"Families looking for more space, empty nesters and retirees looking to downsize, young people looking for their first place on their own or with their friends," Mayor Scott said.

However, opponents say they are worried about the impacts on their neighborhoods. They said it was not fair that some neighborhoods are exempt from those reforms, and that the required impact studies have not been fully conducted.

The Banner reports that no further meetings on the housing bill have been scheduled.

Against the housing bill

According to the Banner, the bill did not receive a vote after multiple members of the Land Use and Transportation Committee said it did not have their support as drafted.   

Angry Baltimore residents made their voices heard on Monday at the council chambers, fighting back against the bill.

"If this goes through, we are in a position where we are going to be inundated even more by developers, by people who are trying to invest, because it is reasonable to buy in our community, which means it is a great community for people to be first-time homeowners," one speaker said.

"What this bill does is, it detaches the density from the size of the house," another speaker said. "It attaches it to the size of the lot. Every single lot in my neighborhood could now become a four-plex."

Those against the bill heckled Baltimore City councilmember Ryan Dorsey, the committee's chair and architect of the bill, and threatened his job. the Banner reports.

According to the Banner, Ashburton resident Michael Scott said the bill was "disgusting" and called Dorsey "one of the four white men of the apocalypse," referring to white members of the City Council.

The residents at the hearing argued that the bill would change he character of their neighborhoods and open the door for developers to abuse historically Black enclaves in the city, according to the Banner.