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Annapolis Board of Appeals to rule on Lofts at Eastport Landing appeal Tuesday

Brooks DuBose, Capital Gazette City Hall and Naval Academy reporter
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

The Annapolis Board of Appeals will make a final ruling Tuesday on an appeal of a proposed redevelopment plan in Eastport made more than a year ago.

The board has heard testimony from Steve Rogers, the man appealing the proposed Lofts at Eastport Landing project, a 98-unit mixed residential and commercial development plan, at appeals meetings over the last 12 months.

The Board of Appeals will make its final decision at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Annapolis City Hall.

Roger’s appeal is based on the adequate public facilities requirement for new developments. For a new development to be approved, it must be determined that the city can provide all public services, including water, sewer, police, fire, roads, and school capacity, among others. If a plan is found lacking in any of these areas, the developer is responsible for bringing the plan in line with City Code.

Rogers and Alan Hyatt, the Annapolis attorney who represents the project’s developer, Solstice Partners, have called numerous witnesses to testify on these issues during the lengthy appeal, including officials from a raft of city and county departments, including traffic, environment and planning and zoning.

Rogers has argued the Lofts at Eastport Landing does not meet several of these requirements. He has pointed to contamination at the shopping center property that he says has not been properly addressed. Developers have said they are working with the state to clean up contamination left by a gas station and laundromat that once operated there.

Additionally, the proposed plan, which has morphed in the last few years, scaling back from more than 125 units to the current 98 and losing a floor, doesn’t fit into the character and scale of the community, Rogers’ appeal argues, and will generate more traffic along Bay Ridge Avenue as well as failing to meet open-space and stormwater management requirements.

Calculations for police and school occupancy are also incorrect, according to Rogers’ appeal.

At an October hearing, Rogers raised another potential roadblock to the project. There is a 14-foot-wide strip of land — Rogers has called it a “ghost property” — running from Monroe Street along Bay Ridge Avenue to the Chesapeake Avenue intersection that is included in the project’s plans but isn’t owned by Eastport Plaza LLC, which owns the 6.75-acre shopping center, Rogers said.

If the 14-foot-strip overlaps with the plans, it would eliminate numerous parking spots, and require traffic, stormwater and other measurements to be recalculated, Rogers said. The developers’ lawyers say Rogers’ claim is baseless. The board called for a survey of the land to resolve the issue.

Rogers and Hyatt made their final oral arguments in early December. Both parties were required to submit closing statements by Dec. 15.