The Midtown Community Benefits District, a special Baltimore taxing district imperiled this year due to inaction by the Baltimore City Council, has won the right to keep operating.
Property owners in the central Baltimore district voted overwhelmingly to reestablish the zone, which charges owners a special tax in support of cleaning trash, maintaining trees and economic development initiatives. According to results tabulated by the city’s comptroller’s office, 83% of the 1,086 votes cast were in support of keeping the zone.
The future of the benefits district, which has existed since the 1990s and is one of the city’s oldest, was called into question after a bill introduced before the City Council last year to speedily renew the district received no hearing and ultimately died at the end of the session. Without that renewal, city officials were forced to put the issue to the voters — more than 4,000 property owners in Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Charles North and Madison Park received ballots.
Ahead of the vote, the outcome appeared uncertain as a movement emerged among some property owners to defeat the measure. Those residents argued that the district was not doing enough to support its core mission of “cleaning and greening” the area in exchange for the 13-cent levy charged for every $100 of assessed property value.
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Supporters vigorously defended the benefits district, touting the dozens of trash cans the group routinely empties as well as its alley cleaning and bulk trash removal services. In recent years, the group’s mission has expanded to include economic development initiatives, projects group leaders said were “community-driven.”
In the end, the benefits district prevailed. City code required at least 58% of votes cast to be in favor, a figure the vote comfortably exceeded.
City officials said 66 ballots were excluded because they omitted a signature, did not have a vote selected or were cut in half, making it impossible to verify the voter’s signature. About 100 more ballots were excluded because they were filed on behalf of Symphony Center Apartments, a group of properties owned by the Maryland Transit Administration. City attorneys ruled that the ballots would not count because the MTA, a state agency, is not a tax-paying entity. The excluded ballots would not have been enough to alter the election’s more than 700-vote margin.
Councilman Zac Blanchard, who represents most of the territory encompassed by the district and who worked on its staff before taking his elected position, said it was “reaffirming” to see the measure pass overwhelmingly. Blanchard, who won his own election by a razor-thin 48 votes last year, joked that he was unaccustomed to such margins.
“The people who are taking money out of their pockets for Midtown to exist by a landslide supported this,” he said. “It’s rare to ever see that clear and decisive of affirmation of someone doing great work.”
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Before the election, district leaders pledged to hear out property owners and residents of the district who were unhappy with its work. A community engagement process that was begun before the controversy arose and paused will be restarted now that the vote has been settled, said Nicholas Cohen, chairman of the Midtown board.
“There were many people who came out in support, but those opposition folks shouldn’t be ignored,” he said. “Those people that have criticisms, we’ll hear from you. Is there a service piece we can fix? Is there one little tweak that can make your day better?”
Cohen, who lives in Madison Park, said he also wants to hear from other residents like renters and students who don’t own property in the district and weren’t given the chance to vote.
“Everyone makes up the fabric of Midtown,” he said.
Mount Vernon resident George Bourozikas was among the property owners who expressed concern with the district ahead of the vote. He lamented the focus shifting away from cleaning streets.
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Bourozikas was traveling for much of the last month, but said anecdotally, he has seen more employees of the benefits district cleaning trash since he returned. Bourozikas said he will participate in the community engagement process hosted by the district.
“I think they may have felt the heat and the reaction to it,” he said of district leaders. “It’s better than nothing, for sure.”
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