With judges to hear arguments later today on whether a charter change that would allow apartment buildings at the site of Baltimore’s Harborplace is too confusingly worded to be on the November ballot, opponents say voters are being led astray with misleading ads.

Exhortations to vote yes on “Question F, Inner Harbor Park” have appeared over the last week on the homepages of the Baltimore Banner and Baltimore Sun as well as on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Many voters are being inundated with robotexts and robocalls paid for by “Baltimore for a New Harborplace,” a political committee whose treasurer, Jonathan Sandoval, works for MCB Real Estate, the company that stands to benefit from the charter change.

“The ads are guilty of inaccuracy by omission,” says Anthony Ambridge, a former Baltimore councilman who is lead plaintiff on the Question F legal challenge.

The online pitches promise a number of new features around the Harborplace site, such as 500 new trees and a public amphitheater, that have not been approved and are currently without funding.

But the ads never spell out the key change that approval of Question F would make:

Allowing for “multifamily residential development and off-street parking” in an area that was specifically designated in the City Charter for “public park uses for the benefit of this and future generations.”

Nor do the ads remind voters of MCB’s plans to tear down the existing low-rise pavilions on the waterfront and replace them with two linked towers accommodating 900-1,000 apartment units together with a sail-shaped retail and commercial structure and a midrise office building along Pratt Street.

“They never say the existing open space is protected in perpetuity by the City Charter. They don’t mention that the promised ‘additional open space’ will be in the shadow of 60 stories of apartments at the water’s edge,” said Ambridge.

MCB has not returned a request for comment about the ad campaign.

The Maryland Supreme Court today is expected to hear arguments from Thiru Vignarajah on behalf of 20 city residents, led by Ambridge, who persuaded a Circuit Court judge last month that the wording on Question F is unclear and that it violates the Maryland Constitution.

(A former deputy attorney general and unsuccessful candidate for mayor and other offices, Vignarajah has been involved in a number of high-profile matters, most recently representing the family of a city sanitation worker who died on the job of heat stroke.)

Attorneys for MCB, the State Board of Elections and the city will make the case today for reversing the lower court’s decision in hopes that Question F will be ruled valid.

If approved, the charter change would pave the way for MCB’s sweeping plans to redevelop the tourist waterfront that Mayor Brandon Scott has been working on – secretly at first, he acknowledged – with company founder P. David Bramble.

Despite opposition voiced at a committee hearing, the City Council approved legislation that removed all height limits in the area and made other favorable zoning changes.

Scott and Bramble argue that bringing a residential component to Harborplace’s mix of shopping and dining will re-energize an area that has lost its appeal since its celebrated start in 1980.

Critics, meanwhile, condemn the privatization of the public park, arguing the addition of high-rise buildings blocking views of the water will further deaden the space and make it an exclusive retreat for affluent apartment dwellers.

MCB characterizes opponents as “a small group” who are “trying to prevent Baltimore residents from determining the fate of our Inner Harbor.” (So warns a splash page that has popped up on their ourharborplace.com website.)

Opponents point to the more than 1,100 members of the Harborplace Forum, a Facebook discussion page largely driven by detailed critiques of the project.

They also note that a “Protect Our Parks Campaign,” intended to get a counter-measure onto the ballot to prevent the Harborplace apartments, collected 9,925 signatures. To get on the November ballot, 10,000 valid signatures were needed.

Just how much money is being spent on the public persuasion campaign remains unclear.

Categorized as a “ballot issue committee,” Baltimore for a New Harborplace is not required to publicly disclose its revenue sources until the second and fourth Friday preceding the general election.

Its chairman, real estate attorney Jon M. Laria, is a heavy hitter who shepherded the $660 million (TIF) Tax Increment Financing pledged to Kevin Plank’s development company to fund Port Covington.

Also on Bramble’s team is lawyer-lobbyist Timothy F. Maloney, a former state delegate from Prince George’s County who is representing MCB as it seeks to keep Question F on the ballot, and Leland Shelton, MCB’s director of government relations who formed the ballot issue committee last June and who served as Mayor Scott’s former campaign treasurer.

Park Space and Ownership

With neither the Banner nor the Sun accepting comments from readers, the Harborplace Forum has been one of the main places where details of the plan are deconstructed and debated.

Recently Ambridge and retired Planning Department official Laurie Feinberg were on the Facebook page going back and forth over the claim on one of the ads that touted “four acres of new parks.”

The claim stems from a provision in the charter amendment that increases the Harborplace area for “multi-family residential development” from the current 3.2 acres to 4.5 acres.

“How does adding two apartment towers and private parking (that will be removed from the public park per the referendum language) – which is the ONLY thing Question F does – increase park?”

Feinberg says “it is not an additional four acres” of parks, but Ambridge argues that’s exactly what the ad implies, adding:

“The ad is very misleading, particularly given ‘the park’ will be sandwiched and behind towers and the wall of office and retail.”

Other aspects of the unfolding Harborplace deal raise questions for Ambridge, including who precisely is the owner of Harborplace.

While the city owns the land, MCB owns the improvements.

Ambridge, a former city real estate officer, notes that MCB is not just a hometown West Baltimore developer, as often portrayed by Mayor Scott, but is a real estate management firm that controls $3.5 billion in assets across 32 states for institutional investors.

“MCB will just be the asset manager at Harborplace. But who’s really gonna own it? Some pension fund in Illinois?” he wondered.