Petitioners against Harborplace development accused of misleading public

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According to Baltimore City Board of Elections Deputy Director Abigail Goldman, the petition from “Protect Our Parks” did not get enough signatures for it to make the ballot in November.

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It's a petition called "Protect our Parks." but critics say it should be called "Stop Harborplace Development.”

The grass-roots effort is facing pushback from people who feel like it’s deliberately misleading, in an attempt to get more signatures on the petition that’s been circulating in recent months.

A WMAR-2 News viewer reached out to us and said on three separate occasions, she witnessed petitioners gathering signatures by asking people if they wanted to "save our city's parks." She says each time, they failed to mention that one of the goals is to block the major redevelopment project that's planned for the Inner Harbor.

Baltimore-based developer MCB Real Estate wants to tear down the existing Harborplace pavilions , and replace them with high-rise apartments and new retail and commercial buildings.

The “Protect Our Parks” organizers are collecting signatures to get an amendment on the ballot in November that would restrict private development at 20 city-owned parks, including the Inner Harbor Park.

Michael Saunders owns Matriarch Coffee, located in one of the pavilions. He’s in favor of MCB’s plan.

""The first encounter was in our store when a group of 3 young folks came in, asked would I like to sign a petition to save our parks and green spaces? Of course, I said yes. I love nature,” he recalled. "Well, I know there's been some opposition to Harborplace, the redevelopment of it. So I stopped and asked them, ‘Is this in opposition to the redevelopment of Harborplace?' Their immediate answer was ‘No, this is about green space, parks, recreation, whatever.’"

When the petitioners asked for his ID to confirm his voter registration status, he paused, and went to find out more information.

"I found out I would've been signing something that was against myself,” he told WMAR-2 News.

Saunders didn’t end up signing it. He was approached another time by a different petitioner, and again asked the person if it was in opposition to Harborplace’s redevelopment. Again, he was told no.

"If you want to be in opposition of it, fine. But don't mislead me into trying to oppose what I want,” Saunders said.

Last week, Senator Antonio Hayes posted on X , "I am told people are out at the downtown farmers market lying. Getting people to sign a petition to protect city parks from development and its really about stopping progress at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Beware of these imposters."

Already on the ballot in November is a proposed amendment to the city charter that would allow for residential development and parking at Harborplace, paving the way for MCB’s plan to move forward. We spoke by phone to Jon Laria, chairman of “Baltimore for a New Harborplace,” a committee that’s supporting that amendment. He says he’s been contacted by many people who also feel misled by the “Protect our Parks” organizers, and wanted to have their names removed from the petition once they realized what it was about.

“They're basically burying the Harborplace issue within this larger question of saving parks. And most people, if you don't explain this to them, clearly will say, parks are good, we should save parks, right? So they will sign the petition. And only afterwards, do they realize that what they're really doing is signing a petition that could interfere with the revitalization and redevelopment of Harborplace,” Laria told WMAR-2 News. "If that’s the case, they have every right to do it. But then they should have a campaign called ‘stop Harborplace,’ not ‘save the parks.’”

Baltimore resident Scott Henderson sent us an email exchange with Thiru Vignarajah, former mayoral candidate who is helping lead the Protect Our Parks initiative. In the email, Henderson explained that he did not realize he was signing a petition that would block the Harborplace development plan.

"I would not have signed the petition had I known this, and I am now requesting that you kindly remove my name from the petition,” he writes.

Vignarajah wrote back that he would try to track down his signature, but likened the effort to finding “a needle in a haystack.” He also said, ""For what it's worth, we have said from the very beginning that stopping commercial development at the Inner Harbor Park was one of the goals and affects of the proposed charter amendment," adding that it's written in bold at the top of the signature collection sheet. He apologized if Henderson got the wrong impression.

The exchange was on July 10th. Henderson says he provided the date and location of when/where he signed the petition, but has yet to hear back as to whether his name was removed from the petition.

Efforts to reach Vignarajah by phone were unsuccessful Monday. We also reached out to Protect Our Parks using the number and email listed on the petition, but have not heard back.

To get on the ballot, the petition needed 10,000 signatures by July 29th. It’s unclear if the group accomplished their goal. It would need to be dropped off at the city’s law department before heading to the Board of Elections. The department says it hadn’t received anything as of Monday afternoon.

You can read the petition here .