Officials weigh in on BGE property

The Baltimore Sun

The city Planning Commission yesterday gave Seton Hill residents and BGE one more month to fight it out for a wall design for the Paca Street compound where BGE plans to build an electric substation.

Seton Hill residents have spent two years meeting with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. - first asking the company to put the substation somewhere else, then struggling to find a design for the station's 18-foot-high surrounding walls, one that would match the community's Victorian rowhouses and fit BGE's budget.

The question is whether anything will change before the Aug. 9 meeting.

"If in a month people do not come in here hugging, kissing and singing 'Kumbaya,' then this chair will design the wall," Planning Commission Chairman Peter Auchincloss said. "And believe me, I don't use a crayon real well."

BGE has owned the Paca Street compound, a tan brick structure nearly an acre in size just north of St. Mary's Park, for more than 30 years. The company has always said it might put a substation inside. When BGE recently bought a second brick structure across the street at 401 Orchard St., the Board of Estimates required that BGE create facades that satisfy the neighborhood.

BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy said the station is necessary to serve growing power needs. Seton Hill residents are concerned its placement in their neighborhood - and the fortress-like walls around it - will drive away development.

BGE planned to have the substation operational by June 2008, Foy said. Because of delays caused by design planning, early 2009 is a more practical goal, she said.

Some issues regarding the substation were settled yesterday:

The commission approved BGE's plans for the smaller Orchard Street compound, which included adding lighting and repainting the brick walls.

BGE will step up maintenance of the area, which Seton Hill residents said is often littered with broken liquor bottles and piles of leaves.

Five security cameras will be placed near the compound, a frequent meeting place for prostitutes, several Seton Hill residents said.

But the plans for the Paca Street compound, although approved by the commission, did not satisfy residents.

Seton Hill residents take issue with the high walls that block views, but some have said that lower walls would expose ugly electric equipment. Others opposed the wrought iron fences that will be simply stuck on top of 1970s-style metal paneling. Several said staining the pale brown bricks a deep red won't make them match the historic area.

Options to change the location of the station are off the table, Auchincloss said. And BGE employees at the meeting said the option to turn the substation into a mixed-use space - with stores on top or around, for example - would be too costly and not possible because of zoning laws.

The only option left is to change the walls in some way.

But resident Andrew Vincent wasn't sure this would make the neighborhood happy. The walls need to be razed and rebuilt, he said. "To me, it doesn't make sense to dress up something made ... in 100 percent utilitarian style. If we allow them to just dress it up, it won't work," Vincent said.

What the neighborhood is hoping for is a creative solution, said Kevin Macartney, Seton Hill Association treasurer.

julie.turkewitz@baltsun.com

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