Arthur W. Lambert has sold insurance from his office on Edmondson Avenue since 1979 and it’s been his intention that his daughter Kearney take over the business he built right there in southwest Baltimore. “It’s been ideal to be here in this location,” he says.

But the city of Baltimore has different plans for Lambert’s 70s-style office building and the other properties wedged on a triangle-shaped parcel of land between Swann Avenue and Old Frederick Road. The city has included the Triangle as part of its redevelopment of the demolished Uplands housing complex site and has moved to take the properties by condemnation.

Lambert and a few others are fighting it and tomorrow evening, the Baltimore City Council will consider rezoning and other matters related to their case. A lot of political momentum has gone into the huge $200 million Uplands redevelopment project, which is intended to uplift the community, but these property owners have not shared the bounty.

Since the city began trying to acquire the 13 properties in the Triangle five years ago, some owners have given in and shuttered their businesses and the area has grown increasingly shabby, dominated by rundown or vacant buildings.

Lambert’s Edmondson Avenue building may be outdated in style, but its exterior is neat and in good condition. Once the city made known its intentions for the Triangle, Lambert and his lawyer, John C. Murphy, went to City Hall in the hopes of persuading officials that he shouldn’t have to relocate.

A self-made businessman, Lambert says he’s willing to improve his property to the city’s satisfaction so he can stay put and participate in the revitalization of the Uplands site, where 1,100 homes and apartments are planned.

But his pleas have persuaded no one and the fate of Lambert’s business and a few others is now before the state’s second highest court.

Says Murphy: “I didn’t take him in to see the man who mattered.”

The lawyer derisively refers to Ronald H. Lipscomb, the city developer who is part of the team that won the contract to transform the Uplands site into a new, mixed-income city neighborhood. Lipscomb, owner of Doracon Contracting, was indicted earlier this year in an unrelated political corruption case involving Helen Holton, the councilwoman representing the Uplands area. He also is a key figure in the legal case embroiling Mayor Sheila Dixon, who is facing perjury and theft charges for allegedly failing to report gifts on city financial disclosure forms. The two previously dated.

Biggest project since Harborplace

It’s easy for Murphy to grouse: millions in city dollars have been committed to moving the Uplands project forward. It’s been billed as the largest redevelopment of city-owned land since the creation of Harborplace. Meanwhile, his clients are trying to hold onto their businesses and earn a living.

The city’s vision for a new urban neighborhood initially included some commercial space on the Triangle parcel, but businesses such as a coffee shop or restaurant would better serve residents of the apartments to be built there, says assistant city solicitor Adam Levine, who is representing the city in the Triangle matter. It’s uncertain now just how the Triangle land will be redeveloped, but city officials say the existing businesses have to go and they are relying on the urban renewal plan’s prohibition on blight to remove them.

But Murphy says the properties should never have been included in the urban renewal plan because they were not part of the original Uplands, a troubled federal housing complex that the city bought and has since torn down.

Besides Lambert’s insurance agency, the remaining properties include an auto repair shop, home health care provider and a 7-day a week liquor store, which neighbors have long complained about.

The Planning Commission has supported the city’s plan for the Triangle and the City Council is scheduled to hold a hearing May 28 on legislation to change the zoning there and prohibit certain businesses, which would be another blow to Murphy’s clients. The property owners are awaiting a decision from the Court of Special Appeals on the blight issue.

“Here in the Triangle, they think, ‘We can just move them out,’ which is grossly unfair treatment,” says Lambert. “It’s quite a devastating thing to have to go through.”

The 76-year-old businessman wonders why he and the other property owners weren’t treated like New Psalmist Baptist Church. The city bought the church’s Uplands area property for $14 million and gave the church a plot of city land in Seton Park to rebuild.

Murphy’s clients also received offers from the city, which the lawyer would not disclose. But he says the sums were based on a property’s assessed value and relocation costs without any real consideration for the value of the business. Lambert says the offer for his 5,400-square foot office building didn’t match the appraisal.

“You don’t get any consideration and that’s after being here 30 years,’’ says Lambert, “thirty years of serving the community.”

– by Ann LoLordo

Baltimore City Council hearings schedule, Thursday, May 28:

Hearing: Urban Affairs and Aging Committee, Agnes Welch – Chair
5:30 PM
09-0313 Urban Renewal – Uplands – Amendment
Hearing: Land Use and Transportation Committee, Edward Reisinger – Chair
6:00 PM Du Burns Council Chamber, 4th floor, City Hall
09-0314 Rezoning – Certain Properties in the Uplands Renewal Area

6:05 PM
09-0315 Planned Unit Development – Designation – Uplands