The following article has been submitted by Fifth District County Councilman David Marks that his office and community leaders are urging an investigation, legal action against a proposed warehouse in Middle River
Baltimore County Councilman David Marks and leaders from the Essex-Middle River Civic Council and the Wilson Point Civic Improvement Association are urging an investigation and potential legal action against a proposed warehouse in Wilson Point.
Three days before Christmas, Councilman Marks received word that a warehouse project had been approved by Baltimore County Government at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Wilson Point Road despite his clear downzoning of the property in 2024. The approval of the project is even more egregious in scale than a similar action by Baltimore County Government at the Evans Funeral Chapel site, which Councilman Marks also downzoned.
The Essex-Middle River Civic Council has promised potential legal action. Councilman Marks has introduced a resolution creating a special committee to investigate how and why Baltimore County Government approved permits for the project.
“In all my years as a community leader and a Councilman, I cannot recall such an egregious, insulting, and improper approval of a project, particularly one of this size,” Councilman Marks commented. The warehouse exceeds 500,000 square feet. “A family spends four or five years to get a house built in this county. Simple home improvement projects take months to get approved—but a multimillion-dollar company gets permits in hand with lightning speed.”
The Essex–Middle River Civic Council has initiated legal action seeking extraordinary injunctive relief to halt a project approved in violation of County law and without public transparency. In parallel, the Civic Council is calling for the creation of a formal investigative committee to fully examine how this project advanced through the approval process.
“Section 32-4-205(b) of the County Code makes clear that a limited exemption is a separate and distinct approval from a development plan. A review of the Development Review Committee application shows the required box for a limited exemption was not checked,” said Josh Sines, President of the Essex–Middle River Civic Council.
“Despite the County Council’s downzoning of the property, this project moved forward without public notice, without community input, and in direct contradiction to the safeguards meant to protect residents. An independent investigation is necessary to show the public exactly what happened and ensure this cannot occur again.”
Bob Bendler is the former president of the Wilson Point Civic Improvement Association and the Essex-Middle River Civic Council and a retired county planner. “Lockheed Martin and the new owner and developer of the project, Middle River Logistics Owner LLC, have displayed an extraordinary lack of transparency toward this community,” Bendler commented.
David Abbassi is the president of the Wilson Point Civic Improvement Association. “This project destroys ballfield space that many people consider historic,” Abbassi commented. “It creates an eyesore next to the new Glenn L. Martin museum, and worsens traffic on Eastern Avenue and in our community. These are precisely the reasons why we have opposed this project.”
