Don’t rush Annapolis City Dock project — do it right

There’s a saying, “Beware an old man in a hurry.” And, while at 61, Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley isn’t superannuated, with 19 months left in office he is definitely in a hurry to break ground on the City Dock redevelopment.

This project has been a long time coming. In fact, it started when Ellen Moyer was mayor. She convened a public hearing at Maryland Hall in which she talked about “reimagining” City Dock. Her ideas included replacing surface parking with greenspace and raising sea walls.

When Buckley became mayor, he began changing downtown into something “cooler” (at least as some define it). He experimented with an artist colony in an empty commercial space on City Dock. He launched pilot projects on bike lanes on Main Street and used the pandemic emergency to waive city code to allow sidewalk dining.

But, since his earliest days as mayor,

Buckley’s Great White Whale has been redeveloping City Dock. The trouble is that he has made it difficult to discern just what the plan entails.

Admittedly, Buckley has held numerous public meetings about his City Dock plans. Many of those were announced with little notice or publicity, and most were not recorded. I attended one in at the Stanton Center on Clay Street. Buckley rambled for about an hour.

He talked about a maritime visitors center and oyster bar, but then said they weren’t part of the presentation. He said he supported building a hotel where the Latitude restaurant is — and then admitted that too was not part of the plan.

Inside the monologue were perhaps some concrete ideas as to what he wanted to do at City Dock. Perhaps. I got the feeling the presentation was a way for him to develop alibis for the day when the surprises come — as they always do. He then can say he mentioned X, Y and Z at several public forums and no one objected.

Another problem with Buckley’s plan is its misguided priorities. Among all federal and state grants he says he has lined up is $30 million from FEMA for resilience (that is, flood protection). But “resilience” would be the last phase of Buckley’s project, behind a bandstand, a pergola, a splash fountain and foosball tables. FEMA won’t pay for any of that.

Buckley is counting on at least four other federal grants to pay at least part of the bill. The problem is that federal grants come with strings attached. The grant-making agencies require approved plans before they release the money. But Buckley is offering only concepts and ideas.

In pursuit of Moby Dock, Buckley also spent much effort of bending the Planning and Zoning Commission and, his bête noire, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) to his will.

He recently replaced the HPC’s experienced chair and vice chair with supporters who have no experience dealing with the federal, state and local historic preservation laws. (Full disclosure: My wife was vice chair and chair of HPC). That is his prerogative.

But the people he replaced had decades of knowledge and experience and would keep his beloved project out of legal trouble. The new folks don’t know what they don’t know, and the risk is they might rubber-stamp actions that run afoul of the law.

There is another old saying: If you want something really bad, that’s how you’ll get it. The City Dock project is a good concept. But it needs an actionable plan — not broad concepts — that can survive legal and regulatory challenges and meet strict federal grant requirements.

This is the biggest infrastructure project in the city’s history — more than $100 million. If it isn’t done right because Buckley was in a hurry, the next mayor and Annapolis taxpayers will be stuck with the consequences — and a massive bill.