A proposal to create a family-oriented Inner Harbor park cleared a key hurdle today when Maryland's Board of Public Works voted to approve $1 million for the project.
The money will be used to develop Pierce's Park, a one-acre parcel on Pier 5 named for former businessman Pierce Flanigan. Two nonprofit groups, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance, have been seeking to raise $2.4 million to create the park and maintain it.
The $1 million from Program Open Space, part of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, brings the total raised so far to more than $2 million in cash and donated labor and materials. Laurie Schwartz, executive director of the Waterfront Partnership, said she hoped that ground could be broken in the spring and that the park could be opened in the fall of 2011.