Baltimore city officials have released a draft of the agreement that gives a private non-profit group authority to restore and manage the Washington Monument and the four public parks that form a cruciform around the monument.

The “developer’s agreement” allowing the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy to proceed with its $12 million plan to refurbish one of the city’s most cherished landmarks has some residents worried about the potential lack of oversight by the city.

“It’s as if they [city officials] are giving a blank check to the conservancy to do as they wish,” said Joan Spence, who lives in a carriage house off Mount Vernon Place.

A group called Save The Mt Vernon Trees has voiced strong opposition to one aspect of the plan – cutting down nearly half of the parkland’s existing trees. The group has collected 2,000 signatures of people against the tree removal plan.

Lance Humphries, executive director of the conservancy, said that the new agreement is an operating agreement and does not imply approval of its future plans.

“It’s not about the trees,” Humphries said, which can only be removed following review and approval by the City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP).

Humphries said the group’s detailed proposal on cutting down and replacing the trees is, at minimum, six months away.

The agreement will be publicly aired tonight before the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere Association. A meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Belvedere Hotel, 1 East Chase St.

Steven Shen, chairman of the association’s architectural review committee, called the pact with the city an excellent starting point to restore the former grandeur of the site.

“Everyone recognized the need for a single entity whose sole purpose is to care for the area,” Shen said, adding that the park’s fountains, walkways, curbs and terraces are in immediate need of improvement.

“Mount Vernon Place looks good from 100 yards away, but when you get close, you see there is so much deferred maintenance it’s scary. This is a national treasure, a national landmark. It should get this kind of attention.”

Restoring the Monument by 2015

The conservancy’s immediate priority is to restore the Washington Monument in time for the 200-year celebration of the laying of the cornerstone on July 4, 1815.

The 178-foot-high doric column in honor of George Washington was closed to the public in June 2010 after structural damage was found on the top balcony used as a viewing stand for visitors who ventured up the 228 steps.

The conservancy plans to disassemble the balcony and replace its rusted metal brackets with stainless steel pins. The marble column walls will be cleaned and repointed, and the wrought-iron fence and other ornamental features at the base restored and repainted to return the monument to “world-class status,” the group promises.

Formed in 2008, the conservancy is comprised of a cross-section of Baltimore’s business and political elite.

Henry H. Hopkins, retired general counsel of T. Rowe Price, is the group’s president. Other members of the board include Mark Fetting, chairman and CEO of Legg Mason, and John A. Gilpin, senior vice president of U.S. Trust.

Board member Andrew Frank, special adviser to the president of Johns Hopkins University and former Deputy Mayor, is scheduled to discuss the agreement at tonight’s meeting.

Shen said the board members, who do not have term limits, lend credibility to the project. “This is a museum-quality board. As they do their fundraising, people need assurances their money is not being wasted,” he said.

Under the agreement, the conservancy is required to hold one public meeting a year.

$1 Million from Rec and Parks Bond Loan

The group said it has so far raised more than $1.5 million in private funds. It plans to raise $12 million to complete the restoration.

The city will add $1 million to the pot by allocating bond funds approved by voters in 2010 for the Department of Recreation and Parks.

Half of the funds ($500,000) will be allocated out of this year’s Recreation and Parks bond fund, and the other $500,000 from next year’s capital budget for the parks department.

The agreement calls for the city to supply “basic services” for the park area – such as tree pruning and removal, grass mowing, graffiti removal, bench repair and replacement, bronze sculpture maintenance and park lighting.

The city will also pay $35,000 a year to the conservancy (or $175,000 through 2016), with an additional $80,000-a-year worth of services provided by the Midtown Community Benefits District.

Back to the Tree Battle

Regina Minniss, who has lived in Mount Vernon for 40 years, initially supported the conservancy as a means to raise money and undertake needed repairs.

But she now firmly opposes the group’s plan to remove the majority of existing trees at the east and west ends of the park.

“Over time it’s alright to replace them, but not all at once,” she said in an interview yesterday. “The trees are very important for the air quality of this neighborhood.”

Humphries said the tree-removal plan resulted from a survey by Bill Graham, a Philadelphia horticulturalist, showing many trees with signs of stress, such as thin canopies, exposed roots and calluses and wounds on the trunks.

Many of the trees were planted by the city in the 1980s in soil pits that were too small, which hampered their growth and damaged their health.

According to the group’s website, the replacement trees would be mature, 8-inch-diameter specimens about 30 feet tall.

The new trees would not only provide “an instant canopy,” but would include different species in each park, “carefully coordinated for greatest visual impact.”

In handling the park’s architectural elements, the conservancy promises to restore the marble balustrades, fountain basins, retaining walls, sidewalks and other aspects of the “Parisian” design for Mount Vernon Place completed by the landscape firm of Carrère & Hastings in the 1920s.

Flower Mart and Other Festivals to Continue

Current festivals that take place at Mount Vernon Place – notably the Flower Mart and Baltimore Book Festival – will continue at the site.

But the fairs and festivals will be under the management of the conservancy group under the service agreement, which is expected to go before the city Board of Estimates in the near future.

The conservancy will also be allowed to set up concession stands and receive up to $25,000 of annual net proceeds. That will increase to $50,000 a year once the group raises $4 million.