Annapolis City Council cites environmental risks on land slated for affordable housing

Annapolis City Council members are raising concerns about environmental risks associated with land being considered for affordable housing on the site of the old Department of Public Works building on Spa Road.

At the beginning of May, the Annapolis City Council sought  to incorporate the Public Works property into a 722-home mixed-income neighborhood envisioned in a federally approved plan to redevelop two Eastport communities.

If built, the existing 357 affordable housing units at Eastport Terrace and Harbour House would be demolished and replaced with 365 units designated to create a “diverse mix of residents of varying income levels,” to be eligible for up to $50 million in federal funding, according to a council.

City zoning laws limit the number of units that can be built. Without the 19-acre property on Spa Road, only about 625 units can be constructed.

Redeveloping the former Public Works facility would help the city meet the plan’s goals by adding 97 more units to meet the requirements of the federal plan. However, the city must first determine if the land poses any environmental and health risks.

The land was previously the site of an incinerator operated by Annapolis from 1934 to 1949. Prior to that, it was a landfill.

Last year, the city unveiled a new Public Works building located on Hudson Street. The building is a one-stop shop for Public Works vehicles, their maintenance and storage.

The Spa Road property housed a garage, salt barn and trailers. There was a gas station and nearby fuel tank. The gas station is still in use for government vehicles, according to Burr Vogel, director of Public Works.

The additional 97 units would go where the garage and old salt barn are located as well as the eastern side of Spa Road closest to the gas station.

The proposed plan includes environmental testing on around 35 sites on both sides of the property, excluding Weems Whalen Field which has already been classified as contaminated with chemicals such as arsenic chromium. Weems Whalen Field is included in a remediation plan to “put it back into service,” Vogel said at a May council meeting.

What the city expects to find during testing is unclear, Vogel said, but given the property’s previous uses as a landfill and gas station, they are looking for the presence “or likely presence” of hazardous substances or petroleum products.

Vogel said that the city doesn’t know what will have to be done in terms of environmental remediation measures and its cost until they “completely characterize the site.”

The property crosses the districts of Shelia Finlayson, a Democrat representing Ward 4, and Elly Tierney, a Democrat representing Ward 1.

“There’s no question that we need workforce housing. And by workforce housing, I refer to housing for teachers and police officers and nurses. So if there is an opportunity to build and to have a combination of things on that property, I am very supportive,” Finlayson said Friday.

Some council members such as Alderman Ross Arnett, a Democrat representing Ward 8, are hesitant due to unanswered questions.

“I cannot sanction signing off on a resolution…that is totally vague and does not talk about the responsibilities that the city is assuming by making this land available to anybody,” Arnett said in May.

Tierney did not return a request for comment.

If approved, testing will begin in September. It is unclear when a vote on the resolution to approve the use of the property will occur.