The Sisson Street Task Force last night tossed the mayor’s preferred site – the Potts & Callahan property on Falls Road – from the list of possible places to relocate the Sisson Street Citizen Drop-Off Center.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos, the task force chair, said there had been “enough pushback” to warrant its removal from consideration. She earlier disclosed that she and the mayor’s office had received about 1,000 emails about the proposed move to the Jones Falls Valley.

Of those, two favored the plan.

The task force was established by Mayor Brandon Scott to recommend to him whether to retain, relocate or close the Sisson Street site, which is sought by Seawall Development for retail development and a possible grocery store.

The company’s principal, Thibault Mankein, a close ally and contributor to the mayor, also owns property on the east side of Sisson Street, which he wants to covert into apartments and office space.

Ramos said she told Scott yesterday the committee, which includes three city council members, will not have a recommendation by December 31 and most likely will continue deliberations through January 2026.

What became crystal clear last night is that competing sites for a trash recycling center have strong forces lined up against them in the committee.

• DETAILED COVERAGE: Scott’s Sisson Street Trash Plan

The two most talked-about alternatives – 400 West North Avenue, an 8-acre parcel between I-83 and the Jones Falls, and an open lot off Howard and 25th streets – were kept on the list, despite objections by several task force members.

Councilman James Torrence stated he is strongly opposed to the North Avenue site because it is located next to a Black community, which Mayor Scott said was off limits. (The eastern edge of Reservoir Hill is several hundred yards from the site’s southern boundary, separated by I-83 and greenspace along Mt. Royal Terrace.)

The property is owned by David Bramble’s MCB, owner of Harborplace, who uses the property to store equipment and excavation material and appears to have little interest in selling the land, which he and several partners purchased from the Norfolk Southern railroad in 2019 for $2.95 million.

Objections to Other Sites

Task Force Secretary Samantha Horn said she and other members of the Remington community oppose turning the Howard Street lot, owned by Seawall, into a recycling center. The 4.5-acre lot is rented by the Maryland Department of Transportation to store buses.

Jed Weeks, executive director of Bikemore and another task force member, said terminating the lease, even if possible, would hurt transit reliability in the city and be a dumb move.

“I hear all the challenges here,” Ramos responded.

“I hear all the challenges here”  – Task Force Chair Odette Ramos.

She said the task force will also consider locating the recycling yard on a roughly three-acre spread under I-83 at Guilford Avenue, Fallsway and Madison Street.

Torrence objected to that, saying the land serves as parking for Maryland correctional personnel at Central Booking.

A fourth property, a former city dump at Monument Street and Edison Highway in East Baltimore, is hobbled by its remote location and issues that Councilman Jermaine Jones alluded to as not for the public record. After hearing his feedback, Ramos characterized the site as a “maybe.”

All of which turned the task force’s attention back to Sisson Street, which Rodney Bennett, the yard’s director, said was noted for its quick and friendly service, but was crippled by age and an obsolete layout. “We’re held together by a shoestring,” he told the task force.

The Eastern Drop-Off Center at Bowleys Lane is now undergoing extensive rehabilitation and enlargement. But Bennett said he doubted it or the Northwest Transfer Station on Reisterstown Road would ever replace Sisson Street in the minds of citizens.

“People just love Sisson Street,” he said, and even with improvements made elsewhere, “I can’t stop them from coming here.”