james b kraft

The Baltimore City Council gave preliminary approval Monday for two more years of tax breaks for developers rehabbing historic properties

Baltimore finance officials concerned about $1.7M in revenue annually

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Wednesday for the public to be more engaged in helping the police and elected officials fight Baltimore's violence.

Amid a bloody start to the New Year following a violent 2013, city council members asked police leaders at a hearing on Tuesday whether they've changed something for the worse.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday the city will make lump-sum payments to owners of historic properties whose tax bills in coming years will be higher than what government officials told them to expect. The checks — which will cover portions of up to nine years of future tax bills — are intended to compensate property owners who were awarded excessive 10-year credits for renovation or restoration of historic buildings. The city intends to cover the mistakes with a single

City homeowners could receive $3 million in property tax assistance under a plan Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to unveil today, addressing concerns over tax bills that skyrocketed when errors in historic tax credit awards were discovered.

City officials on Monday will consider issuing $35 million in bonds for the massive Harbor Point development — among the final steps before construction can begin on the $1.8 billion waterfront project. Some are urging the board not to approve the financing until all environmental concerns associated with the former chemical plant site are alleviated.

Three dozen condo owners in Baltimore found themselves owing thousands more in property taxes than they anticipated after the city determined that their 10-year historic credits were invalid and removed them years ahead of schedule.

The developer planning to build a new waterfront headquarters for Exelon Corp. on the site of a former chromium processing plant assured Fells Point area residents Thursday night the Harbor Point project could be built safely without releasing the highly contaminated soil and ground water entombed beneath the site.

A public meeting tonight (Thursday) will give Baltimore residents a chance to ask questions about environmental safeguards for developing Harbor Point, a former factory site in Fells Point where toxic chromium remains entombed underground.

Homicide detectives gathered under a West Baltimore street lamp Wednesday evening and studied a pool of blood from a gunshot wound to the head of a 20-year-old man. As police notified his family and began to canvass the area, a spokesman assigned the victim a number: 199.

The City Council on Monday postponed a vote on the ban at the request of the legislation's sponsor, Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector, who said proponents want to target the ban within 10 feet of outdoor dining — rather than entire commercial districts — and within five feet of a parking meter or kiosk and on pedestrian bridge or at the entrance to a stairwell.

Plans for redeveloping a former chromium factory site in Fells Point hit a new snag Friday, as federal and state regulators called for changes in the Harbor Point developer's plans for protecting the public from toxic contaminants in the ground during construction of an office building there for Exelon Corp.

At Woody's Taco Island food truck, customers take their marinated tilapia, Caribbean fried rice and jerk chicken chili to go in recycled cardboard containers. It's an environmentally friendly — albeit more expensive alternative — that restaurateurs around Baltimore say their customers are demanding in place of traditional foam cups and containers that some want banned from the city.

A public meeting on environmental safeguards for redeveloping a Fells Point former factory site has been reset for Nov. 14, Baltimore City Council member James B. Kraft announced.

A City Council committee approved a bill Tuesday to hire an independent lawyer, instead of relying on City Solicitor George Nilson's advice.

Baltimore officials have revised tax bills for many of the 315 property owners who saw their taxes jump unexpectedly in July, after the city concluded that state officials had been granting excessively large discounts for historic renovations.

The number: $15.9 million What it is: The amount of money Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says the city's Billing Integrity Unit has "recouped" since 2011 by catching erroneous tax breaks and other tax billing problems.

Even as some Fells Point residents worry that building over toxic soil at Harbor Point could endanger their health, records show elevated levels of cancer-causing chromium in groundwater just beyond the site targeted for an upscale development.

Plans to begin work soon redeveloping the former chemical plant site at Harbor Point hit a potential delay Monday, as the Maryland Department of the Environment said the federal government shutdown would prevent it from completing review of the project by Tuesday, as required.

A meeting to address residents' concerns over environmental hazards on the site of the proposed Harbor Point development has been delayed because of the federal government shutdown.

As he ends his first year on the job, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts is facing questions about whether he is taking too long to remake the agency and develop a crime-fighting strategy. But others say he is being candid about the city's problems and deserves more time to make progress.

The causes of days-long power outages in Southeast Baltimore earlier this summer and the work Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. will be doing to prevent similar problems in the future will be discussed at a public meeting hosted by BGE officials in Fells Point on Monday, according to the company.

The owner of the former General Motors Corp. factory site in southeast Baltimore has applied for a city permit to build a huge warehouse that would employ up to 2,600 people, according to documents filed with the city's planning department.

After weeks of protests, the Baltimore City Council granted preliminary approval Monday evening to more than $100 million in public financing for the upscale Harbor Point development.