For years—decades actually—there has been a lot of talk and little action on a major overhaul of City Dock. Sure, there have been bulkhead repairs, and a few periodic facelifts but nothing substantial. Thanks to an initiative by Annapolis’ Mayor, Gavin Buckley, and Historic Annapolis Executive Director, Robert Clark, the prospects for a generational improvement is on the cusp of a breakthrough. If the city is to thrive in the future, a complete overhaul of City Dock is the answer.
Clearly, this is a big task and therefore it’s understandable why it has been so hard to achieve progress in the past. I served on the Water Access/Maritime Sub-committee and have been following the process at every step of the way. Our group of 10 Annapolitans met five times over a two-month period. We had a series of lively discussions that identified a large number of problems and eventually, we offered several solutions. The other study groups included: Design/Place making; Parking/Bicycle and Pedestrian Access; Thriving Local Businesses, Programming, Community Character, Benefits, and Livability; Preservation/Burtis House; Environmental/Resiliency and Financial Tools.
Mayor Buckley has been very passionate when discussing City Dock during several presentations he has given over the summer. He recognizes that his administration has stumbled a few times with things like a bicycle lane on Main Street (that he canceled). But, he gets credit for trying to make Annapolis better. Nearly two years into his term, Buckley is on a mission. Robert Clark says there are several factors helping move the process forward. “I think the chances of success are huge. The city has three things going for it: an impatient mayor, the Hillman parking garage needs to be rebuilt, and the bricks on Main Street need to be replaced. There is a consensus to make City Dock greener as we deal with flooding.” He continued to say, “I am optimistic. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We have received hundreds of thousands of dollars of free advice from many smart people. But, let me add any construction needs to be done in a coordinated fashion. If we take away Hillman Garage for two years, we will need alternative parking.”
The City Dock Action Committee (CDAC) is chaired by veteran urban planner and former director of Planning and Zoning in Annapolis, Eileen Fogerty. Over the course of two interviews she explained to me, “Cities either need to move forward or they will move backward. A city needs activity. Other places are providing these. We want access to the water, a thriving environment, public green space, and we want to walk all the way around City Dock.” She continued, “We need a public open space that doesn’t flood. There are some proposals to build tiered seating areas where people can sit. We need green and shade, and less blacktop.”
An aerial view of the City Dock area clearly shows that the current configuration is all wrong. The city owns little waterfront property and yet a majority of it is filled with parking spaces. In a new written plan, City Dock is described as a “Sea of Parking.” Clark says, “With modern technology we can build a new garage that will accommodate at least 200 more cars and we can replace the lost parking currently on City Dock.”
The future of Annapolis is tied to a vibrant waterfront. Many cities around the world have learned to leverage their best assets to ensure that both its residents and visitors enjoy the best the city has to offer. The current set up around City Dock is outdated and uninspiring. The City Dock Action Committee understands what needs to be done. A 22-member action committee will take the plan to the next stage.
In the short term, there are several items that can be achieved including the writing of a strategic economic development plan that will drive the infrastructure needs, improve parking signage and pricing, modernize the city’s parking app, and it would be helpful if the CDAC gets some early successes. In the intermediate term, the Hillman Garage needs to be completely redeveloped followed the re-bricking of Main Street. In the longer term, the resiliency infrastructure culminating in user friendly public spaces at City Dock needs to be achieved.
Mayor Buckley told the Board of Directors of Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County that his goal was to get the contracts signed so that work would progress over the next several years regardless if he is re-elected. It was an important statement. Historic Annapolis has been cautious about development, but Robert Clark and his organization are firmly on board with the City Dock Action Committee plan, which is important to many concerned citizens about the future of City Dock.
Downtown Annapolis could use a number of rejuvenating enterprises like a return of a food store (think Rookie’s Market that existed from 1948 until 1994), or a movie theater. A revamped City Dock will bring more visitors to downtown and provide all of us who live here a more interesting community. The long-term benefits will spirit all kinds of new businesses and create more reasons to live here. Other cities like Charleston, South Carolina, Portland, Maine, and Newport, Rhode Island, have gone through similar renovations and are thriving as a direct result.
As designers and builders are contracted there will be many details that will have to be worked out. As a long-time member of the community and a proponent of improving City Dock, it looks like the chances of success are very encouraging.
City Dock now floods 52 days per year, and in the next 40 years it will be underwater every day. It is time to act. In early 2019 a group of 90 local residents volunteered to serve on nine different action committees to study and list problems and propose solutions to make City Dock more viable in the future. The guiding principles called for five areas of study: 1. Enliven the pedestrian experience by creating programming, adding green community space and improving access to the water. 2. Ensure the future health and viability of City Dock businesses while committing to a high quality of life for the adjacent residential neighborhoods. 3. Provide new accessible parking options with any relocation of existing parking. 4. Preserve and enhance Downtown Annapolis’ Maritime Heritage, it’s authentic character and view-sheds by honoring the existing building/zoning envelope and maritime focus. 5. Reduce flooding at the City Dock immediately while implementing long-term comprehensive resiliency efforts.
1. Maritime Subcommittee
- A City Dock that accommodates arrival by land and by sea.
- Make it easy for transient boaters to visit Annapolis.
- Encourage visits of historic ships.
- Expand the width of the walkway along Ego Alley.
- Reconfigure the Harbormaster building in a better location.
- Make sure the annual boat shows continue to thrive.
2. Thriving Local Business Principles Sub-committee
- City Dock area should be a town square, a meeting place, and a marketplace.
- Water is the anchor. We have a great view of the bay.
- City Dock should work for businesses on the dock, businesses anywhere in Annapolis, and businesses that don’t exist yet.
3. Programming and Community Access Sub-committee
- Multi-generational family programming.
- Diverse offerings for the entire city.
- Create easily accessible outlets for people to learn about events.
- Events need to be affordable and offer free events.
4. Burtis House—Historical Significance Sub-committee
- Water access and recreation.
- Celebration of Historic Maritime Tourism.
- Remove the wall of electrical equipment on the waterfront.
- Possible location for Harbormaster.
5. Community Character, Benefits Livability, Outreach Sub-committee
- Keep Annapolis authentic.
- Pedestrian and family focus.
- Create more green space and water accessibility.
6. Resiliency/Flooding Sub-committee
- Shore protection: seawalls, revetments.
- Flood protection: permanent installations like dams, levees, or berms.
- Deployable installations like door dams or stackable flood walls.
- Install pumps and drains.
- Institute green and gray storm-water management.
7. Parking, Biking, and Pedestrian Access Sub-committee
- Find a supportable way to create new in-kind parking close to City Dock to open up parts of City Dock for more community-serving uses.
- Relieve traffic congestion problems through better communications to motorists, explore valet parking, promote biking, encourage safe walking for pedestrians, create ride-hailing drop-off/pickup zones, address parking requirements for local business and city employees, and make bus service more predictable and communicate schedules better.
8. Design—Place making
- The CDAC paper calls for protection from rising sea levels, creating user friendly public spaces. (The slogan the paper uses is, “People, not parking.”)
- Rebuild a better Hillman Garage that will accommodate many more cars.
- Repave Main Street, which has serious deterioration.
9. Financial Tools
- The City issued a Request for Qualification (RFQ) looking for firms to provide financial ideas to fund a new Hillman Garage and public open spaces.
- Funding for each of the proposed projects will require both public and private inancing. Some of the estimates in the CDAC documents range from modest to expensive. For example, it is estimated that better parking operations for signage and optimized parking options could be achieved for $250,000. The estimated cost to enhance the public space on City Dock is $4 million. This would include work on the Burtis House, the walkways around City Dock, new landscaping, and infrastructure improvements. The resiliency construction for flood barriers and extended pier work is estimated at $15 million. The largest estimate for the rebuilding of Hillman Garage is listed at $20 million. It should be noted that these are rough figures in the early stages of conception.
