Plans are taking shape for downtown Baltimore’s next attraction – a $4 million civic space for people and their pets

For many years, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore focused on making the city’s central business district clean, safe and welcoming for office workers who spend the workday downtown and then go elsewhere after 5 p.m.

But as work habits have changed in the post-COVID era and more office buildings have been converted or targeted for conversion to apartments, downtown has gained more residents who are in the area around the clock, and the Partnership has to make downtown attractive for them too.

That’s the thinking behind the organization’s plan to create Baltimore’s next attraction: a $4 million civic space in the heart of the city that will be amenity both for the office workers and visitors who are downtown during the day and also for the residents who are there morning, noon and night.

The tentative name for this civic space is Liberty Park. The location is a city-owned sliver of land that is bounded roughly by Fayette, Liberty and Baltimore streets and Park Avenue, currently a city Department of Transportation right of way.

The land is essentially a wide traffic median one block long, that is primarily used as a gated pet area called Liberty Dog Run. Open from dawn to dusk, it marks a key dividing line where the 33-acre Charles Center renewal district, created starting in the 1960s, meets the more historic west side of downtown.

Leaders of the Downtown Partnership are working on plans to take this 0.35-acre site near the CFG Bank Arena and make it even more of a gathering spot and amenity for the increasing number of residents who are moving downtown, an area considered Baltimore’s fastest growing neighborhood.

The new civic space will be about six-tenths of an acre. The $4 million in funding will come from a $10 million appropriation that the Maryland General Assembly made to the Downtown Partnership for fiscal 2023.

New priorities

The idea, according to the Downtown Partnership, is to take what’s already there and make it more attractive as a parklike setting for pet owners to frequent and for others to spend time as well.

According to Downtown Partnership President Shelonda Stokes, 11,000 residents live within the 106-block district that the organization oversees — and the number is growing.

As more residents move in, she said, the Downtown Partnership has had to adjust its mission and think about ways to make downtown more attractive for them as well as office workers and visitors. And that means introducing or expanding amenities that office workers may not have asked for but residents want to see, including outdoor spaces for their pets.

“We are talking about a future that is completely mixed,” Stokes said. “No longer can you think in silos — only business or only residents or even only tourism. We are really looking at how our city combines all of those assets, and so we are designing for all.”

When the Downtown Partnership surveyed residents to learn what improvements they’d like to see downtown, Stokes said, one of the most requested items was an improved dog park.

When the Partnership sought funds from the General Assembly to improve downtown, she said, representatives were clear that an improved dog park and civic space was a priority. The project is also a component of Mayor Brandon Scott’s Downtown Rise initiative, she said.

Community engagement

The Partnership recently held a community meeting at the CFG Bank Arena to provide an update on planning for the park and get feedback from area residents, including suggestions for improving the preliminary plan.

More than two dozen people attended the meeting, one of several community engagement sessions that are being held at this stage of the planning.

So far, residents were told, the Downtown Partnership has hired a landscape architect, Mahan Rykiel Associates of Baltimore, to develop preliminary plans. One of the next steps will be to select consultants to develop a final design, based on feedback and suggestions made in response to the preliminary plan.

The final phase of design is expected to take about a year, and then construction is expected to take another year or so. Planners say they’re aiming to open the completed project in the spring of 2027.

The preliminary plan unveiled at the community meeting shows that the dog park would be basically where the existing dog run is, and that a separate park space will be created west of it. The plans show that the dog park will be enclosed by a fence and will have artificial turf and a natural plants around the edges to provide a buffer between the park and vehicular traffic.

The landscaped space outside the fenced-in dog park will be on the west side of Park Avenue, with artificial turf, seating, a public bathroom facility, a security kiosk and possibly a retail kiosk.

Stokes and Steve Robinson, Vice President of Parks, Plazas and Green Spaces for the Partnership, said planners are looking at public restroom facilities around the country to see what might work best in this location and they like the “Portland Loo” in Oregon. They also said this is a good potential spot for free Wi-Fi.

$10,000 donation

During the community meeting, CFG Bank Arena General Manager Frank Remesch presented a $10,000 check from the arena to the Partnership to support the project, and several audience members commented on the preliminary plans.

Paul Sturm, a downtown resident and chair of the Downtown Residents Advocacy Network, urged the park’s designers to study successful urban public spaces around the country, including Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and Bryant Park in Manhattan, to see how their planners define and enclose park spaces.

“My concern has to do with fencing,” he said. Looking at the preliminary plans for Baltimore’s park, “it feels to me like fencing could very well be a barrier. It sends a message, even though you may not intend to send it, that some people are welcome in the park but not everyone is welcome in the park. I know we want a safe environment, but I think what really makes an environment safe are the people. And the more people, the greater mix of people, the better…I think we want a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable. I really believe that the more people feel welcome and comfortable in a space, the safer and the livelier it will be and the more enjoyable it will be.”

Jillian Storms, Executive Director of the Office of School Facilities for the Maryland State Department of Education, said she hoped the Partnership wouldn’t have to cut down all the mature trees currently on the site and asked why the landscape architects specified artificial turf. She also urged the designers to make adequate provisions for people with disabilities, including continued access to the State Department of Education headquarters building where she works.

Robinson said artificial turf holds up a long time and is easy to keep clean by power washing. He and Stokes assured her that the new civic space will be designed to be accessible for people with disabilities, because city and state regulations will require it.

Greg Finch, a downtown resident, said he hopes the planners get some ideas from the entrepreneurs who operate the private “Bark Social” dog parks in the Baltimore area, which offer free WiFi, sell cocktails and provide other perks.

He said he would like to see the Downtown Partnership take the opportunity to create the best dog park in the world, a place that will put Baltimore on the map and be a model for other cities.

“What is the opportunity here to make this the first of its-kind, anywhere on the planet, like Harborplace was?” Finch asked. “What is nobody else on the planet doing?”

“I love, love, love all of that,” Stokes said of his comment. “That’s exactly the kind of stuff we want to hear.”

Stokes said planners are still making decisions about several aspects of the project, including whether it will have a dedicated staff and how the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks might be involved. She and Robinson said hours of operation would be the same as the city has for its parks, from dawn to dusk.

A gift to the residents

Courtenay Jenkins, senior director of Cushman & Wakefield and a member of the Downtown Partnership’s board and the executive committee of the Downtown Management Authority, said he’s impressed by the planning effort so far. He said it’s a good example of the way the Downtown Partnership’s board members and staffers have adjusted their thinking to consider the needs of downtown residents as well as office workers.

“Historically, the Downtown Partnership might be considered more focused on office buildings and office tenants,” he said. “But I want to tell you, since Shelonda’s gotten here, that’s not the case. The residents downtown are actually becoming more of the focus, and I think this Liberty Dog Park…is a gift to the residents of downtown.”

Jenkins said he applauds the direction Downtown Partnership is taking with the Liberty Park project.

“I personally think the residents are as important, if not more important, as office tenants, because with people living downtown you’re going to get the energy and the revitalization that we really need, and that will bring people back to the offices in downtown Baltimore.”