63
n 2004, Baltimore City government gave maritime
interests a key legislative victory by approving a
city-wide zoning scheme which curbed the encroach-
ment of deep-pocket developers on remaining deep-water
parcels in the Port area. The Maritime Industrial Zoning Overlay
District (MIZOD) delineates tracts off-limits for non-industrial
purposes. More importantly, the legislation codifies Baltimore’s
commitment to protect the Port’s best interests, recognizing that
regulatory relief is a prerequisite for attracting the necessary level
of maritime investment to sustain the region’s economic growth.
Expediting the traditionally tedious approval process for
a new dredge deposit site sits high on the Port’s agenda. In
February 2006, Baltimore’s port welcomed the largest container
ship to ever drop anchor in its harbor — the 900-foot long MSC
Tokyo
. Weighing 72,000 tons, the
Tokyo
was, in fact, one of Mediter-
ranean Shipping Company’s medium-sized vessels, carrying 5,600
TEU containers, while Mediterranean’s biggest ships hold 9,200.
The Port’s container traffic increased 12 percent in 2004-05,
and Baltimore, unlike many other ports, has the potential to ex-
pand its container-handling capability. But as the industry trends
towards ever-larger vessels, dredging issues could be a pending
impediment in Baltimore’s efforts to capture its share of the
booming container traffic.
The Port of Baltimore, with a little legislative help from its
friends, is positioned to play an even greater role in the future
global world economy where supply and demand are increasingly
served by one giant international market, instead of regional or
national markets as in the past.
The winners in globalization’s regime — in which increasingly
more goods will be transported greater distances — are regions
best-positioned to capitalize on inbound and outbound traffic of
the global supply chain.
In the same way that old Baltimore Town was developed —
block by block and pier by pier, radiating out from the Port’s core
— the sea lanes and transportation arteries which radiate out from
Maryland’s Port of Baltimore are the best bet to sustain the state’s
future economic development.
Whenever Maryland’s economic security is called into question,
one answer echoes down the halls of history to burst forth:
I
Greater Role
Facing page: Tugboats
like the
Kaleen McAllister
work along Port piers.
Above: Line handlers help
keep stacks of containerized
cargoes, inset, moving
through the Port’s maritime
chain.
The Port. It works … for 3oo years and counting.
