July 14, 2025 Newsletter
Happy Sunday, Ward One
After a great long weekend, I’ve exchanged the dry extreme heat of Rome for the muggy, less-extreme heat of Annapolis. The wine’s not quite as good around here, but the people are even better.
After that brief getaway, it was an eventful week in Annapolis, with lots of concern getting raised over an unsolicited marina proposal. But this week I’ve mostly been focused on affordability and inviting people to our event about how city government can keep more money in your pocket.
Here are the top 3 things you need to know in Annapolis:
Rest assured that I’m not supporting the marina idea that was bandied about this week and it’s unlikely anything will come of it after we hear the proposal, but you should be aware that O-14-25 seeks some exceptions to the historic district height limits that would allow a hotel to be built at City Dock. Read on for more.
Our affordability-focused, pay-what-you-can fundraiser is this Tuesday at Market House! I hope you’ll join me.
There are public hearings this week on three of my bills: limiting density of short term rentals, licensing walking tours, and improving campaign finance transparency. Come out and talk about them, if you have thoughts!
Updates from Harry
I had a great column all teed up to write about parking. But some issues du jourpreempted that, and I’ll just leave you this cliffhanger: Want to know how hard the city council is pushing Premium Parking? They just hired themselves a lobbyist.
On Wednesday, Eye on Annapolis published a sensationalized article about the topic of the council’s July 24 public work session: a presentation on an unsolicited proposal to add a marina at the end of city dock park. Keep in mind that work sessions are inherently non-voting; this was purely to receive information.
Here’s how I see the situation:
The city administration received an unsolicited proposal for a private company to pay to build a marina at the end of City Dock Park.
The mayor mentioned to me in the broadest terms that the proposal had been received, and I told him it was a bad idea.
The mayor then scheduled a work session on it, and what you need to understand is that the bar for having a work session is "one person wants to hear about this," which is very different from the bar for passing legislation of "five people think it's actually worth doing".
We (you, me, almost everybody) were all going to learn the details of the proposal together at the publicly-announced, livestreamed work session coming up in a week and a half.
The mayor has told me that “this is an issue for the next council to decide,” which—given the rapidly expiring legislative clock—I take to mean that legislation on this will not be getting introduced this year.
But the article made it out as though there was some shady conspiracy already predetermined to “suspend the rules and may push this forward” immediately. I wasn’t asked if I supported it. As far as I know, no one was.
I’m not trying to berate the publisher, who does lots of good work to keep us all informed about our city. But I hate the idea of distrust getting sown in city government when it’s not warranted. This was not legislation about to be rushed through but a public vetting of an unsolicited proposal.
You can watch that vetting yourself on July 24 by at 3:00 pm. It will be streamed live on Facebook, YouTube and the local government channel on cable, and residents can attend in-person, although work sessions do not have a public comment portion.
I’ll reiterate that from the little I’ve heard about this proposal, I think it’s a bad idea. From what we know, it would involve privatizing some of our most valuable public space, blocking views from what will be our new park, and accommodating 200 ft yachts instead of locals’ sailboats that Annapolis is known for.
I expect nothing more will come from the marina proposal, and you have my commitment that I will fight against anything that involves these aspects.
There’s also been some concern recently about legislation I wrote about on May 11, O-14-25. It’s got four parts, but the contentious one is about height limits “on properties with frontage on Dock Street between Craig Street and the eastern most terminus of Dock Street,” in other words: a hotel.
Unlike the marina proposal, which is little more than an idea, this is full-fledged legislation with five sponsors that has been wending its way through the legislative process. It recently received a 4-2 positive recommendation from the Planning Commission and will likely come before the council for a public hearing as soon as July 28th.
The changes to the height limits are relatively modest, if you read through them in isolation. It’s saying that “mechanical penthouses”—which I take to mean air conditioning units and the like but which seems to need a clearer definition—may extend up to ten feet beyond the current height limit and elevator shaft overruns may extend five feet beyond the limit if three circumstances are met:
The building has to have a green roof “engineered for stormwater management, energy efficiency and planted with vegetation”
The structures can’t be more than 25% of the area of the roof
The structures are supposed to minimize how viewable they are from all public rights-of-way and be screened on all four sides.
There’s also an allowance that handrails can exceed the height requirements as long as they aren’t more than four feet and are set back one foot for each foot in height.
But neighbors have been loud and clear that they do not want a large hotel here, and for that reason alone I oppose it.
I also think that this part of the legislation—unlike some of the other parts, which simplify code—makes our already ludicrously complicated city building code even more complicated and that these standards shouldn’t only apply to one block.
That’s why I’ve been talking for months with the folks at Historic Annapolis to strategize on it and that’s why I had committed to those of you who asked that I would be writing about this again when it’s on the council’s agenda next. But in the very-important-to-me spirit of abundant transparency on an issue many residents feel passionately about, I wanted to be sure you’re aware of it now.
It’s also important to me that we fully understand how this will affect our historic district, and that’s why Monday night I’ll be moving to refer O-14-25 to the Historic Preservation Commission for their review.
I want to be your trusted source of information about Annapolis. I work really hard to do that and take great pride in increasing civic engagement with my honest assessments and unvarnished opinions. But anywhere you’re getting your news has biases and incentives, me included. Keep those in mind, and feel free to share when you see opportunities for me to improve.
This week and every week, I’m grateful for the honor of representing you and our whole community. Never hesitate to contact me at harry@harrymhuntley.com.
City council agenda
Call To Order
Mayor Buckley
Invocation
Alderman Huntley
I haven’t yet picked out what I’ll do as our invocation. I was thinking maybe something from The Federalist Papers. Got a suggestion? Drop me a note.
Pledge of Allegiance
Mayor Buckley
Roll Call
City Clerk Watkins-Eldridge
Approval of Agenda
Proposed Closed Session
ID-122-25 Legal Update from the Office of Law
We’ll be getting an update on all pending litigation as part of regular oversight and awareness of any potential future liabilities.
Ceremonial Items
ID-120-25 Annapolis Police Department College Scholarships
Update from Mayor
Mayor Buckley
Reports by Committee
Comments by the General Public
Remember, you can come to any city council meeting to tell us about what’s important to you and your neighborhood! Register here or just show up.
Consent Calendar
Public Hearings
CA125 City Council Compensation Commission
This legislation mostly just reorganizes where in the charter the process for setting city council salaries is located. It also changes the name of the Salary Review Commission to better distinguish it from other processes. The only substantive change is removing the city manager from this process for setting elected officials’ pay. If this is passed, the City Manager’s compensation will be placed under the jobs & pay schedule adopted annually by the City Council. I think it makes sense to treat the city manager position more like all the other staff positions, while only having this separate process for elected officials.
O-17-25 Limiting Short-Term Rentals per Blockface
I have heard from so many of you how short term rentals are hollowing out our amazing communities as longtime neighbors get replaced with rotating tourists. You can read in the Banner how I think “ Short-term rentals can be part of our community, but they can’t be all of our community or we won’t have a community.” After much careful study of measures taken across the country to address that concern, I’ve worked with our Office of Law to develop this relatively straightforward bill. It simply says that once a blockface (one side of a city block) reaches 10% being short-term rentals, no new licenses are issued for that blockface. It does not directly affect existing short-term rentals, but if one lost their license and had to reapply, it would then be subject to this density cap. I don’t think this is the ultimate panacea to the issue, but capping density like this is something we can get done this council term to strengthen communities without overstepping on private property rights.
O-19-25 Regulation of Walking Tours in Historic Annapolis
This creates a simple process to license walking tours in downtown. The businesses themselves have requested this legislation. We’ve heard about some bad actors, so this will give the city a way to remove licenses if businesses do not comply with commonsense rules. It only applies to walking tours.
O-20-25 Sale of City-Owned Property at 932 Spa Road and 935 Spa Road, Lot 1
This allows us to temporarily sell part of the old DPW site at Spa Road to the Resilience Authority who can receive federal funding to do the extensive environmental remediation needed. The agreement includes that they will turn it back to us seven years after the transfer. It’s straightforwardly good to clean this city-owned land up. A couple members of the Heritage Commission have concerns about ensuring we preserve any remnants of the Civil War camp that’s there, and I got them connected with the relevant committees to present on that. Since we’re talking about federal funds, there will likely be very strict requirements for archaeological documentation, which the Resilience Authority is no stranger to fulfilling.
O-21-25 Annapolis Harbor Lines at 423 Chester Avenue on Back Creek
I don’t really get this. It sounds like a marina is unhappy that the city’s work to rehabilitate 6th Street Park will impact their current use of space, even though the city is only exercising its own riparian rights. So, in exchange, this legislation is proposing to give them more of the city harbor, much more than even what they’re saying would be impacted. Why would we give them something for nothing? The harbormaster notes how this would exacerbate congestion in this corridor. I’m inclined to think that there should be some price associated with this.
O-24-25 Election Reporting Deadlines
This adds two new campaign finance reporting deadlines earlier in the election cycle. It would not apply until the 2029 elections. We all know the city council and mayoral elections are in full swing, but the first reports that tell you who’s raised how much from whom won’t be available until August. By requiring candidates to report their contributions six months and three months before the primary, the legislation will give voters more transparency into who’s funding city elections.
Ordinance First Readers
O-31-25 Issuance of General Obligation Bonds and Bond Anticipation Notes
This ordinance is both a big deal and very routine. It’s a big deal because it involves a lot of money, but it’s really just fulfilling the plans that have already been debated in the budget. The city has a target of 10% of General Fund expenditures being debt service costs with absolutely no more than 12%, and we’re continuing to stay well within that. There’s an interesting discussion to be had about when is best to issue bonds (“timing the market”), and I’m sure that’ll get covered in detail when this comes to the Finance Committee.
Ordinance Second Readers
O-6-25 Clearing Snow and Ice from City Sidewalks
This legislation, my first ordinance to be introduced, was inspired by our big snow storm. So many people said to me then “Why isn’t the city ticketing people who don’t shovel their walk?” and I told them that the truth is that many of those properties did get citations, but a citation doesn’t clear the snow. This legislation would allow the city to clear a sidewalk of snow after issuing a citation and then charge the property owner for the cost. It has a provision for the Public Works Director to waive that charge in compelling circumstances. This is meant as a last resort after someone clearing their own walk, having a neighbor do it, or paying someone to do it. The Public Works Department is developing what the exact costs will be so that we can bring that forward as a fee resolution.
O-8-25 Chesapeake Children’s Museum Lease Renewal Through June 30, 2030
The Chesapeake Children’s Museum is a valued member of our community, and they’re located on city land. This would extend their lease, now that they’ve worked through some issues for it with the Office of Law. I’m looking forward to getting all our leases under the new Department of Central Services.
Resolution Second Readers
R-27-25 Renaming of the Noah Hillman Parking Garage
While I greatly appreciate the contributions of Walter S Mills, I think talking about the name is a waste of time when we should be focused on making the operations of the garage better. I voted against this on first reader and intend to abstain from debate and voting on it on second reader.
R-30-25 Five-Year Consolidated Housing and Community Development Strategic Plan
This sounds a lot more exciting than it is. It’s just a description of how the city intends to spend federal Community Development Block Grant funds. The Housing committee reviewed it, and it’s earned my vote.
Adjournment
Other news you can use
Today is the WORA summer party in Paca Gardens, 4-7 p.m.
Maryland Hall kicks off their summer concert series, Bloomhaven, tonight with a performance from Dominique Bianco and Tommy Holladay.
Tomorrow at the Eastport Fire Station Volunteer Hall from 9:30 to 11 and from 11:30 to 1:00, the fire department will be hosting two Community-Driven Strategic Planning Focus Groups. You can RSVP to AFDInfo@annapolis.gov
The Karousel band will be tomorrow’s concert in the City Dock free summer concert series. 6:30-8:30 at City Dock.
Tuesday evening, join us at Market House for some great food and a conversation about how city government can keep more money in your pocket and make sure Annapolis is truly the kind of welcoming place we all envision it to be. You can choose tickets for $1, $10, $100, or $1000!