The Baltimore City Council is set this evening to approve several far-reaching pieces of legislation on the final day of its 73rd term, which began in December 2020.

The biggest initiative is a centerpiece of Mayor Brandon Scott’s plan to rehab or tear down the vacant housing that has plagued many parts of the city since the mid-1970s.

Two bills will authorize up to $65 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) bonds to underwrite the costs of rehabilitating unused and abandoned housing and the development of affordable housing units.

The eventual goal is to issue up to $165 million in TIF bonds, an amount that the city’s consultants, MuniCap and PFM Group, estimate will not negatively impact the city’s debt ratio or increase the cost of borrowing.

That’s because interest on the bonds would be paid off with new property tax revenue generated by the sale of the rehabbed properties. Or at least that’s the theory presented by the consultants and accepted by the city finance department.

What’s considered unique about the proposal is that TIF funding will go to all parts of the city – with the primary focus being on the historically neglected “Black Butterfly” of East and West Baltimore.

Previous TIF funding was overwhelmingly directed to private waterfront developments, such as Harbor Point and Port Covington (now Baltimore Peninsula), aimed at attracting upscale residents and businesses.

Part of Larger Plan

The TIF allocation is a part of Scott’s much broader vision, announced last December, to use a mix of $3 billion in public and private financing to eradicate the estimated 35,000-40,000 vacant and “at risk” houses in Baltimore.

The plan depends heavily on so-far-uncommitted state and private aid as well as a change in state law that would give Baltimore a share of the sales tax collected in the city.

A 2% local share would generate enough revenue to pay debt service on $1.5 billion in other bonds to be be used to fix vacant homes, Scott has said.

If the Council passes Bills 24-0594 and 24-0595, as expected, Scott will immediately sign the legislation at a special bill-signing session at 7:30 tonight.

The many other pieces of his vacant house plan will await the new Council, whose members will be sworn in tomorrow at City Hall, along with the mayor, entering his second term, incumbent Comptroller Bill Henry and the Council’s new president, Zeke Cohen.

Harford Road Rezoning

Also on tonight’s agenda is the final passage of the “Harford Road Overlay District,” which was pulled off the November 18 agenda at the request of its sponsor, 3rd District Councilman Ryan Dorsey.

The measure would rezone three miles of the the northeast Baltimore thoroughfare to permit apartment conversions and affordable and market-rate apartment construction from Argonne Drive in Lauraville to the county line, including adjacent side blocks.

The blanket rezoning is needed, according to Dorsey, to increase the density of the predominately homeowning district in order to support local businesses, decrease commercial vacancies and increase the stock of affordable housing.

The bill has generated considerable heat, both pro and con, both in the community and the Council itself.

Councilman Eric Costello kept the bill bottled up in the Ways and Means Committee for many weeks before Dorsey forced a full Council vote over the opposition of Council President Nick Mosby, who said the plan did not have the support of the community.

The bill passed on a 9-4 preliminary vote, but final passage was stymied when Dorsey realized that, due to the absence of several allies, the measure would likely be voted down on November 18.

Thus tonight’s showdown in the Council chambers, with an anticipated crowd of detractors and supporters in the audience.

If the bill passes, as expected, it will likely be over the objections of at least three lawmakers – Costello, Mosby and Robert Stokes, who lost their seats in the May primary and will exit the legislative body at the end of tonight’s session.

There will be four new faces in the 74th term to be sworn in tomorrow: Mark Parker (replacing Cohen, the new Council president), Paris Gray (replacing Kristerfer Burnett), Zac Blanchard (replacing Costello) and Jermaine Jones (replacing Stokes).