Final results are in from the City of Cambridge’s special election for the Council’s Ward 1 and Ward 5.

City Council Ward 1

Laurel E. Atkiss 207 53.35%
Chad Malkus 181 46.65%

City Council Ward 5

Brian R. Roche 96 61.94%
Cleveland L. Rippons 50 32.26%
Robert G. Aaron 9 5.81%

“We believe, at Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc, that Cambridge can offer something unique to people who want to visit the Eastern Shore of Maryland,” said CWDI Executive Director Matt Leonard. “So, that’s what we’re aiming for, is to be unique enough that people are attracted to come to Cambridge and special enough that people will live at Cambridge Harbor and play at Cambridge Harbor, work at Cambridge Harbor.”

Leonard was talking about a new district that will be built on 30-plus acres along the waterfront. Designed to include public spaces, amenities, and events, it will focus on promoting Cambridge and Dorchester County’s history, heritage, and culture while creating a destination for tourism. CWDI, a nonprofit corporation formed through an agreement of the city, county, and state, is developing Cambridge Harbor in partnership with the community and will operate the complex as a place to live, work, and visit.

As Leonard pointed out, Cambridge has often been passed or cut through by people going from west to east. But Cambridge Harbor will be strategically placed at the gateway into the city. “And so we also have this sort of unique responsibility for those people who are driving through, to maybe get them to turn right as they come across the Highway 50 bridge for the first time and to explore Cambridge Harbor and through Cambridge Harbor to the Packinghouse and Downtown Cambridge and Pine Street and the West End Historic District.”

The project is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $350 million, with $50 million being the public investment for infrastructure and parks, to include a hiking-and-biking trail and roofed performance venue. The rest will come from the vertical developers building the boutique hotel, residential structures, and retail locations. In April, CWDI received a $1 million grant from the state for design and development, and that followed $1 million awarded in December through the Rural Maryland Development Fund. All told, CWDI has raised $13.2 million in project funds in the last 16 months.

These grants will be used for the detailed design work needed to estimate accurately the construction cost and how much more money needs to be acquired. CWDI has some construction dollars already, and they will shortly be building a new road on the south border of the park. This road will be able to handle traffic, but it will just as often be closed to serve as a pedestrian plaza.

Leonard emphasized that the designers of the complex have been mindful that whatever is done will honor the architecture, maritime history, and heritage of Cambridge and Dorchester County. As renderings have been coming in from potential partners, the designers have provided input to make sure they fit Cambridge’s character.

Another element the developers have had to keep in mind is protection against sea-level rise. CWDI has received guidance from expert institutions stating that the minimum building pad along the waterfront should be seven feet above sea level. So, they are making their own minimum nine feet above.

“There are places right along the waterfront that are lower than that,” said Leonard, “but that’s not where we’re building anything, and we don’t want to disturb the waterfront because that can do as much damage as trying to build it up to protect from a flooding event.”

Since long before the project to build Cambridge Harbor was announced, local citizens had been resistant to commercial space and housing at Sailwinds Park, and those feelings have continued. Leonard understands those concerns, since certain developments in the past, particularly those along Cambridge Creek, essentially cut off the public’s access to the water there. As result, it seems obvious that people are worried Cambridge Harbor will be more of the same. But CWDI is promising that the waterfront will always be open to the community. The biking-and-hiking trail will stretch all around that area, and the planned six-acre park will belong to the public all the time.

“In order to make that active and interesting enough for people to want to spend time in those public spaces, and also to be able to afford to maintain and activate those to the public’s benefit, you have to have vertical development around it, like hotels, residential, and retail, to do that,” said Leonard. “Because those are the ones whose dollars are going to pay to make sure the public spaces can be developed and activated for the community’s benefit.”

Still, some local businesses believe that Cambridge Harbor will not benefit downtown. In response, Leonard explained that the Harbor complex will bring in visitors who might not normally want to come to Cambridge. After those people experience the hotel, restaurants, bars, and other amenities, CWDI will make it their responsibility to encourage them to explore the downtown boutiques and restaurants as well as Historic Pine Street, the Packinghouse, and more. Part of the focus for CWDI is connectivity to those other parts of Cambridge through signage, wayfinding, intracity marketing, and even transportation.

“We want to be able to connect Cambridge Harbor with Long Wharf, with the Hyatt, with downtown, maybe a water taxi or some system there,” said Leonard. “We’ve had people who’ve expressed interest in doing that, and we want to be a part of that if we can.”

Besides the possible water transport, there may be a trolley or shuttle system.

Leonard discussed all this with considerable enthusiasm, revealing his affection for the city. After his spouse, Nancy, retired in 2019, they went looking for their “forever home,” and they fell in love with Cambridge at first sight. It was ideally located, on the water and within driving distance of their adult children. Plus, the Leonards are big believers in small-town America. They moved into a fixer-upper on Somerset Avenue in November 2019.

“Every day since, it’s only been better and better,” gushed Leonard, who joined CWDI in January 2022.

To make all of their plans happen, CWDI needs to spread word of their existence and drum up excitement. So, they’ve built out a Cambridge Harbor logo, tagline, signage, business cards, and a line of merchandise. Along with that, there has been the creation of a smaller campaign for the business side. This is significant, because it’s not been done for previous attempts to build on the waterfront. In fact, this is the farthest along the development has ever gotten.

Leonard credited the passion of the CWDI board; some of the members have been involved in these plans for decades. He also praised state-level champions at the Department of Housing and Community Development and the office of former Governor Larry Hogan, who were willing to invest significantly. Something else that accelerated CWDI’s mission was the Dorchester Hospital’s realization that the evolving business aspects of rural healthcare made the old facility inefficient, leading them to build their new medical center beside Cambridge Marketplace. As a result, CWDI had the opportunity to buy 17 of the 35 acres in its vision.

When the old hospital building was demolished, there was some local mourning and even outrage, and Leonard was sympathetic to that. “I do understand the sentimental attachment to a hospital that, for 120 years, birthed most of the people in this community and was there when most of them passed away and healed them. I just want people to understand CWDI did not force the hospital out. We wanted to make sure that property didn’t fall into the hands of a private master developer just to put condos all the way up to the water.”

Within the next 180 days, CWDI will announce some of the partners creating the vertical development at Cambridge Harbor. However, they’re still inviting interested parties to contact them. Construction on the complex is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. Leonard believes it is realistic to assume that it will be finished and ready to open in five to ten years, as long as they keep finding the necessary funding and quality partners. And CWDI will be sticking around after development is completed.

“Part of our mission statement talks not only about developing Cambridge Harbor in ways to benefit the community but also sustaining it,” said Leonard. “We’re in it for the long haul.”

The April 20 meeting of the Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods took place at the Pauline F. and W. David Robbins Family YMCA, where the CEO of the YMCA of the Chesapeake talked about plans for the Cambridge facility. It became a sometimes contentious conversation between Robbie Gill and CAN members as Gill laid out ideas for a new Y building at a different location.

A native of Charlotte, Gill was sent to the Y as a kid so he wouldn’t “burn the house down,” and he spent much of his childhood at his local branch. After college, he got back into the Y and made it a career. About 18 years ago, he decided he wanted to be involved in a small community and moved his growing family to Talbot County.

He told the CAN members, who had filled up Studio A, that his organization had for years been looking at how they could make a bigger impact in Dorchester County. They also wished to explore what a renovation and expansion strategy would be in order to maximize space for wellness, chronic disease programs, and youth programming at the 3,100-member Cambridge facility, a building with 40,000 square feet of usable space that was given to the YMCA in 1998. This exploration was put on hold when the pandemic hit, and the organization got into food delivery programs, childcare for first responders, and online learning for school-age children.

Once the crisis had passed, the YMCA revisited their expansion plans for Dorchester and hired an outside marketing group to conduct a study that included a survey to people across the Eastern Shore. They discovered that the current Cambridge branch couldn’t accommodate the amenities and services desired by the community, including a walking track and a warm-water pool, even if the organization spent $6 million on renovations. So, they elected to examine sites where they could build a new facility.

After testing the current location, a site next to Cambridge-South Dorchester High School, and a spot at the waterfront where Cambridge Harbor will be developed, they decided the best place for a new 70,000 square-foot Y that could serve 8,000 members was around the beach area and welcome center (with the parking lot, the facility would take up 80,000 square feet). An audience member pointed out that Cambridge has only about 12,000 residents, but Gill said that the YMCA in Chestertown, a community of 5,000, has 6,100 members.

The prospective new building would cost an estimated $25 million. Gill mentioned that YMCA, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit entity, prefers not to take on debt, so they are currently in talks with possible supporters, which they will be doing for the next four months. While the dollar amount quoted is “terrifying,” Gill is confident they can get the money, since they’ve built two other similar facilities on the Eastern Shore.

A female attendee asked why the 25 million wouldn’t be enough to renovate the current Cambridge Y to meet the needs mentioned in their study, to which Gill responded that the building would have to be torn down, leaving the community without a YMCA for up to two years. Plus, he said, it would still serve fewer people than could be served at the waterfront.

Someone else objected to the idea of the not-for-profit YMCA moving to the area soon to be taken up by the tax-generating Cambridge Harbor, which will have a hotel, housing, restaurants, and more. Gill said he thinks the waterfront facility would bring residents to Cambridge Harbor and make it a “community hub.”

“All those people at the waterfront,” said one woman, “aren’t those people who already live here and would go there and not necessarily be going there to spend money?”

Gill answered, “Those are individuals who would be going to the YMCA for specific programs and services.”

“Right,” the woman agreed, “but you’re taking up a chunk of the land there, and the people who are going there are going there just to do Y stuff. They’re not coming from other places and spending money at the Y. People already living here are going to the Y, right?”

“And you see a problem with that?” asked Gill.

“I see it as not bringing in the amount of revenue that we hope this, the best property in Cambridge, will bring us.”

That member and others wanted Gill to convince them it made sense for the YMCA to take up space on Cambridge’s “Gold Coast,” which the residents hope will reduce the tax burden and provide money for the local schools. Cambridge Harbor, they said, has the potential to bring in tens of millions of dollars that the community will never see from the Y.

“This makes absolutely no financial sense,” said the woman.

In response, Gill told the increasingly heated crowd that the YMCA organization wants to create a place where everyone would feel welcome and connected. After talking with many community members, Gill and his team are convinced the Y can make a bigger impact in bringing people together in Dorchester County. And doing that would require a site Gill called “neutral or common ground.”

“The reality is, as wonderful as this facility has been, it’s still the old white high school,” he said. “There are African-American individuals who will not come here because of what it once was.”

“I think that’s really incorrect,” a man on the second row objected, “because this place is full of little black kids all the time. The only people I can think of who might have a bone to pick about this place are old people, really old people who were here back in the day.”

Shawna Gregory-Smith, director of the Cambridge YMCA for the last four years, stood up and said, “I’ve personally had families come to me and say they don’t feel comfortable with their children being here alone. And I’ve also had families come to me just to say that coming here is unattainable, like it’s not for them. And these are all black and brown folks. So, I can attest to that.”

Changing the subject, CAN president Chuck McFadden said that people are worried the current building would be left empty to rot if the Y moved elsewhere. Gill said that wouldn’t happen.

“I’m sorry,” someone said, “but the track record here in Cambridge is pretty bad for people making promises.”

In an attempt to cut the tension, the man on the second row offered an idea. “Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, just add a building that has six pickleball courts.”

“Our only reason to exist,” concluded an exhausted-looking Gill, “the only reason this Y exists, is to try to make a positive difference in the lives of those people we’re fortunate enough to serve. Now, we’d love to serve more people in this community, and we would love to be a part in healing this community.”

At an October 2022 meeting with residents of Pine Street in Cambridge about possible development in the area, someone said to City Manager Tom Carroll, “We’ve been talking about this for fifty years. When are we gonna do stuff?”

“That resonated with me,” Carroll reflected, “because, as I look at Pine Street, there are some beautiful structures and beautiful homes, but there’s still a lot of blight and there’s still a lot of need. We’ve got a long way to go, in partnership with the community and the residents of the neighborhood and the property owners.”

It wasn’t always this way. When Cambridge prospered as a factory town in the first half of the 20th century, Pine Street—one of the oldest continuously occupied African American neighborhoods in Maryland—prospered, as well. During the 1930s, busy black-owned businesses lined the streets, and the music scene at several local nightclubs was the most vibrant on the Eastern Shore.

But too many people relied on Phillips Packing for their livelihood, and the company’s downfall in the fifties caused African American unemployment to skyrocket. This led to civil unrest, and a fire in the summer of 1967 wiped out much of Pine Street. Things were never the same after that.

Still, Carroll thinks a lot of what’s currently happening in the area is positive. Habitat for Humanity is building eleven homes on Wells Street, and renovations near completion on Cornish Park at 701 Douglas Street. Recently, ground was broken for the Pine Street Community Market, which is scheduled to open in August.

Perhaps most significantly, the city will be applying on March 14 for a $4 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If this is successful, Cambridge will spend the next two years investing a considerable amount of money in the Pine Street Historic Neighborhood District, possibly as much as twenty to thirty thousand dollars on each home that participates in the program. The investment would go to such things as lead abatement, plumbing repair, heating, weatherization, and hygiene. Owner-occupied homes as well as rentals would be eligible.

Another aspect of this project would involve job creation. Lead abatement is a trade that requires certification, and the city government would hire and train people from the Pine Street area for the job. They would then have a career with a living wage, since a lot of homes on the Eastern Shore need lead abatement. Additionally, the city would bring on several local individuals for community outreach and grant management.

“We’re building capacity and employing people directly from the neighborhood to make the neighborhood better,” explained Carroll. “So, we’re very optimistic about this grant, and that’s kind of my lead focus right now.”

He will learn this summer if Cambridge is to get the grant. In the meantime, the city is partnering with the state to pay for the acquisition of the old Club Dujour & Eatery on Chesapeake Court, which is right across the street from where they want to build ten to twelve single-family homes through a project called HOW (Home Ownership Works). The club is seen as an impediment to the housing endeavor.

“You wouldn’t want to buy a single-family home right next to a club that has hundreds of people going there on a summer Friday or Saturday night,” said Carroll. “So, it’s a project where we feel like buying the bar, eliminating that from the neighborhood, is an improvement to the neighborhood because it strengthens the single-family homes there.”

While housing is the major focus now, there is also the prospect of bringing new minority-owned businesses to Pine Street. Carroll is optimistic, but he says, “The challenge is that there’s not a turnkey-ready piece of property where somebody could just move in and open a coffee shop or a bar or a barbershop. Some of the property that would be suitable for commercial would need a significant investment today.”

Toward that end, Cambridge is involved in a “land bank,” which is where the city acquires specific property and holds on to it until such time that it can partner with neighborhood businesses that would revitalize the area.

“Pine Street is in need of significant investment and work, let’s agree on that,” said Carroll. “But that’s the rewarding work. The opportunity for the city and the neighborhood to come together and do something in partnership that’s restorative, that’s healing, that creates economic opportunity for the people who live there, who deserve it, that’s what I’m excited about.”