The developers of the Harbor Point project anticipate groundbreaking before the end of the year if regulators approve a revised detailed development plan (DDP) to environmental regulators.
Beatty Development submitted the new plan for controlling discharges of toxic materials from the old Allied Chemical site Tuesday, two weeks after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment rejected the original plans.
Horacio Tablada, director of MDE’s Land Management Administration, told a community meeting Thursday evening that regulators are reviewing the plan for the site on the edge of Fells Point. Developers and regulators at the meeting, assembled by City Councilman Jim Kraft, assured residents in attendance they would be constructing the project, which will be home to Exelon’s Baltimore headquarters, safely.
The environmental agencies turned down the original plans based on proposals for air monitoring at the site. Regulators said the results of the monitoring could not be trusted because of the location of the monitoring devices.
The EPA criticized the devices, themselves, claiming regulators could not find manuals for the devices online, leading them to believe they were obsolete. In an earlier interview, however, Tablada said the devices and the methodology were valid and they are used on construction sites across the country.
Beatty promised in their revised plan to use the equipment and methods recommended by the EPA. Beatty Senior Development Director Jonathan Flesher said off-site monitoring locations at the National Aquarium and the City Recreation Pier remain in the plan, but not the Maryland Science Center.
“[The] EPA came back and told us they liked the aquarium and the recreation pier. Those are the two they wanted us to use,” he said.
Flesher said he anticipates a response from regulators next week.
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