The shell of Baltimore's long-dormant Morris A. Mechanic Theatre would be partially preserved as part of a mixed-use complex containing a 30-story residential and hotel tower and commercial space, if its owners can obtain city approval and financing to carry out their latest plans.

Renderings of the proposed development were filed with Baltimore's planning department this summer in preparation for a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. today by the Baltimore Planning Commission.

The project is the latest of several hotel and residential towers proposed for construction in downtown Baltimore despite the uncertain real estate market.

The 1967 theater at 1 W. Baltimore St., designed by noted architect John Johansen to be the sculptural centerpiece of the Charles Center renewal area, has been closed since 2004.

The 1,614-seat Mechanic, outmoded and underequipped, could not compete with the newly refurbished 2,286-seat Hippodrome Theatre a few blocks away, particularly when Clear Channel Entertainment, the Mechanic's operator, had already decided to point its lineup of Broadway shows toward the newer, more accommodating stage.

But when the Mechanic opened on Jan. 16, 1967, it was the cutting-edge showplace, the centerpiece of the fledgling Charles Center renewal district and Baltimore's best hope of luring people back to the city center they had abandoned. The planning commission, an unpaid citizens panel, is meeting today to determine whether to add the shuttered theater to Baltimore's landmark list - an action that would give the city's preservation panel authority to review and approve any changes to the exterior.

The owners, a group that includes the principals of Arrow Parking and David Brown Enterprises, oppose the landmark designation, saying it would trigger a layer of design review they don't want to go through. However, local preservationists say landmark protection is necessary, in part because of the chance that this plan, like others for proposed downtown towers, may not come to fruition.

The architect, Shalom Baranes of Washington, has developed a a plan that calls for the majority of the theater's shell to be cleaned and repaired to contain commercial space.

The tower would rise at the southwest corner of Baltimore and Charles Street, with separate entrances for the hotel, residences and additional commercial space.

The city's planning department staff, which advises the members of the planning commission, has recommended that the theater not be added to the city landmark list, in deference to the owners' wishes.

The planning staff's decision runs counter to action taken last year by the city's preservation commission, whose members voted unanimously to recommend that the Mechanic Theatre be added to the landmark list.

Today's hearing marks the first time that the planning staff has declined to support the preservation commission's recommendations for landmark designation since the preservation panel came under the purview of the planning department two years ago.

Michael Murphy, a local architect and member of Baltimore's preservation commission, said the theater meets the city's criteria for landmark designation and he believes adding it to the landmark list is the best way to protect it from demolition or defacement.

He warned that the planning commission would be setting a troubling precedent if it followed the planning staff's advice and contradicted a vote taken by the preservation commission.

"In this economic climate, things can change overnight," Murphy said. If the latest proposal doesn't move ahead for economic reasons and the building isn't added to the landmark list, he said, the present owners or their successors could ask the city for a demolition permit and the building would not be protected by landmark status.

"This is not the way to do it," he said.

The planning commission meeting will be held on the eighth floor of the Benton municipal building at 417 E. Fayette St.